


Papillon de Nuit

by CastleAndMurdock



Category: Hannibal (TV), Hannibal Lecter Series - All Media Types
Genre: 1890s, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Beauty and the Beast Fusion, Alternate Universe - Victorian, Angst, Awkward Flirting, Awkwardness, Beauty and the Beast Elements, Bisexual Character, Bisexual Male Character, Bisexuality, Canon-Typical Violence, Creepy Hannibal, Crimson Peak Inspired, Cunnilingus, Cute and Awkward Will Graham, Dark, Death, Depression, Doctor/Patient, Dream Sex, Eventual Relationships, Eventual Sex, Eventual Smut, Everybody speaks fancy af, Explicit Language, Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, Female Protagonist, First Time, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Smut, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, Hannibal is Hannibal, Hannibal is Kind of a Dick, Heavy Angst, Horror, Jealousy, Kissing, Loss of Virginity, Love Triangles, M/M, Manipulative Hannibal, Mild Gore, Multi, My First Smut, Older Man/Younger Man, Older Man/Younger Woman, Oral Sex, POV Female Character, POV Third Person, Possessive Hannibal, Psychological Horror, Rating: NC17, Reader-Insert, Resolved Sexual Tension, Rough Sex, Sad, Scars, Sex, Sexual Content, Shameless Smut, Slow Build, Slow Burn, Someone Help Will Graham, Surprises, Threesome - F/M/M, Vaginal Sex, Victorian, Violence, i swear there's a plot
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-04
Updated: 2018-07-05
Packaged: 2018-09-27 16:43:48
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 29,191
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10033955
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CastleAndMurdock/pseuds/CastleAndMurdock
Summary: After her family dies of extraordinarily tragic causes, a young woman is sent to stay with a mysterious doctor and his companion until her uncle can arrive to collect her. Everything seems relatively normal until a severe snowstorm hits and delays her uncle's arrival. Now trapped with two strangers and an increasing feeling of doom, our heroine must try to make it through the storm alive, or suffer a fate far worse than death.Victorian AUFemale ReaderWill/Reader/Hannibal*HEAVY* EXPLICIT RATING.(Set in 1890, so if things are a little off, like mentions of things that didn't exist quite yet, I'm sorry. I did as much research as I could for this.)(In an attempt to use something other than 'y/n', the reader is nameless, but is referred to as The Heroine, or Miss Chilton.)





	1. A Fire, a Letter, a House.

Everything felt like a dream. A dream where your eyes are foggy, filled with smoke and stinging with every blink, making it difficult to make out the surroundings. Everything looked dull and lifeless, shapes blended into each other, any discernible features simply fell out of focus. It was like a dream where your limbs are dead and heavy, where it takes too much energy and effort just to move them, where even standing is too much, your just knees buckle and you just keep falling down no matter how hard you try to remain on your feet. Keeping her head upward was the main challenge, it felt as if her brain had been replaced with lead and her neck was much too fragile like glass to support its weight. There was a distant numbness in her fingertips, a cold tremble that would not cease, a hollow, black pit in her stomach. There was a matching pit in the center of her chest, her heart beating shallowly in a barren wasteland, like a garden where no flowers would ever grow again. It was too unimaginable for her to be awake. 

But she knew very well that she _was_ awake, and the events of the last several days were not, in fact, a horrible dream that only the deepest, most vile depths of her mind could conjure. Despite this knowledge, her body had not yet become aware that what was happening to her was real. She clutched the letter tightly in her hand, the slight sweat of her palm was causing the coal black ink to bleed backwards printed words into the flesh of her hand, blurred beyond recognition. The rocking of the carriage was not helping to calm her nerves either. The occasional noises the unseen horses made, including the clomping of their hooves against the country dirt road, or the seldom moments when the driver above her would cough, muffled by the roof of the carriage, sent little shivers of panic through her veins. Though she was safe inside the interior of the closed off carriage, the small windows on the sides that showed any other signs of life _(trees passing by in a blur, tall grass along the sides of the road and the darkening grey sky)_ still managed to chill her. She still felt afraid, as if the horses and driver were guiding her ever closer to an unknown doom. She had plenty of reasons to be afraid, even before arriving at her destination.

Only three days prior to the carriage ride, an unperceived event had entirely derailed her once promising and otherwise happy existence. A fire had broken out in the study of the home in which she had lived her very modest twenty-two years. The study was located in the second floor of the old house in Towson, Maryland, where she lived with her parents and small sister. The family had been sleeping comfortably, when at three in the morning a spark from the fireplace in the study sparked an even larger fire. Her father had been sleeping in his chair, his upper half sprawled across the desk where he had been working throughout the evening, on a project for his new job at the newspaper in Baltimore, where the family would soon be moving. The spark had hit a nearby box filled with papers and books that her father had been packing in anticipation of the move, which had been left far too close to the fireplace. The smoke from the flames had killed her father in his sleep long before the actual blaze could scorch his skin. The fire spread quickly in a punishing river of red through the halls of the Chilton house.

She would have slept through it, much like her father had, if it hadn't been for the agonizing screams of her mother and young sister, from the other side of the upstairs where the river had ran. As our heroine fought desperately to make it to the side of the house where her family was burning alive, her efforts proved to be in vain as a floor to ceiling wall of pure hellfire blocked her path to the corridor. She threw her arms up to shield herself as the fire exploded in her direction, a whip of flame licking at her bare arm. Her only option was to flee, unless she wanted to stay and burn with her family. Smoke gripped tight in her throat as she managed to run down the stairs and throw the front door open, before she collapsed in a heap on the grassy lawn, too weak to crawl any farther. Fortunately, neighbors who had seen the flames were already gathered in clusters outside along the streets, hands clasped around their mouths with expressions of shock and awe. One of the women had seen the young girl collapse through the smoky haze and screamed out for her husband's help. The husband left his wife behind on the street and rushed to our heroine, gathering her tightly in his strong arms as he hastily pulled her away from Hell's reach.

When she had awoken, our heroine was in a hospital bed, a white bandage wrapped firm around her left forearm, covering over the ghastly burn. The nurse, who had rushed in when young Miss Chilton's screams of pain and confusion began, explained to her that her mother, father and sister were dead, and word had already been forwarded to her next of kin; an uncle in Baltimore, her father's only brother. Her uncle, Frederick, a doctor who worked at the State Hospital in the city, was away on urgent business in New York and wouldn't be back until a week's time. Though he had arranged for her to stay with an old colleague of his from school, until he could come and collect her. All of this had been explained in a letter from her uncle that had arrived that morning to the hospital, the letter that was currently squeezed in her hand as the carriage rolled along to the manor in the Baltimore countryside, where she would be staying until her uncle's arrival from the city. The carriage had picked her up from the hospital, everything had been intricately arranged by Uncle Frederick in advance before his letter was even sent. Though she had only met her uncle a handful of times during her childhood, she had complete trust in his judgement. If Uncle Frederick spoke of this doctor in such a high regard, then he must be a good man. There was no doubt in her mind, and that was that.

The carriage hit a bump as it made a rather sharp turn to the left, causing the young girl to lurch to the side and into the wall. She grasped at the burn on her arm, still carefully bandaged up and covered over with the sleeve of her dress, as it collided with the wall, a burst of pain shooting through her skin on impact. She hissed through her teeth as she held the wound close to her chest, waiting out the slowly receding pain. The dirt below the wheels and the horse's hooves turned into light gravel as they quickly approached the house. She tried looking out the window to see it, but it had grown too dark to make out anything but a few lights on inside. It looked large, however, at least two stories, painted in a very dark color, as it blended in near perfectly with the night sky. The carriage stopped and she felt the structure shift as the driver stood up above her head and dropped to the ground. He opened the door for her as she stepped out on uneasy legs. She wobbled a bit as the driver took her by the hand to help steady her. She nodded in thanks as she took one careful step forward. It was much colder outside than it was in the carriage, and she wrapped her arms around herself to keep warm. Cautiously, she made her way up the steps of the house owned by her uncle's friend, Dr. Lecter, as Uncle Frederick explained in the letter still locked tightly in her hand. Dr. Lecter had lived in the very old mansion, Renard Hall, that had been passed down through the Lecter family for generations, for a great many years now. The Lecter family had been quite small and eventually died out, leaving only the unmarried, childless doctor left, the only one able to claim the estate as his own, and he lived there ever since in solitude, with only his research as company.

Our heroine quietly rapped on the front door, as the driver was bringing her trunk down from the roof of the carriage, full of whatever she was able to salvage from the blaze that had claimed her family and home. She knocked again, a little louder this time, when no one answered. She had always been a quiet person, especially when she was young, and it often became a problem in times like these, when being a bit loud was the better option. Her younger sister, only twelve at her time of death, was the more lively and charming sibling. She could walk into a room and all the light would gravitate towards her, shining brightly with her every smile or laugh. It was difficult to think of her sister so soon after the fire, her piercing screams that would never leave her ears, a sound that would follow our heroine until the day she died, echoing throughout the darkest recesses of her mind. There was a fluttery feeling in her heart, a feeling of being lost in a unfamiliar place when, once again, her knocks went unanswered. She sighed in a quiet stammer of breath as her hand crept around the doorknob and turned it. Dr. Lecter knew that she was coming, and she hoped that he wouldn't mind if she let herself in.

She stepped into the entryway, a beautiful grand staircase was directly within eye line of the front door, about twenty feet away, and it was the first thing that captured her attention. Sconces on the walls, each holding a long white candle, set the entryway into a hazy glow of orange. The stairs, floor and baseboards were made out of a dark, rich mahogany, that gleamed a fuzzy reflection of herself in the floor that stared back up at her. The walls were covered in a dark red wallpaper with intricate designs of stag and doe heads, stenciled on in a deeper, darker red. A circular black table with three legs and clawed feet stood between the door and staircase, a tall grey vase of yellowing white roses graced its surface. A hallway led to the left of the room, and another to the right. Two more, one on either side of the staircase, both led to a room just out of her eyesight. She called out a 'hello', up the stairs but in a much lower register than she had anticipated. She heard the sound of her trunk very slowly being dragged up the steps behind her as she looked down one of the hallways. There was a faint scratching noise in between the sounds of the trunk hitting the steps, like a pen against paper, coming from one of the rooms to the right. She took a chance on this noise, and slowly, shakily, walked towards it, still trying to get used to walking after the long ride. She resembled a newly born baby deer as she walked down the corridor, just realizing that she has the ability to walk. She suddenly remembered the letter still in her hand and shoved it into a pocket of her dress. The hallway led her into what she assumed was the sitting room. The heavy wooden door was open, and she carefully peered inside.

It was rectangular in shape, lit in the same glow as the previous room. From what she could see from the doorway, two burgundy sofas faced each other on top of an old, grey rug, a dark wooden table between them. On the table was a slew of papers; writings and drawings of various animals, their skeletal forms drawn in ink and their nervous systems painted in red watercolor, all scribbled on with notes and other findings. On the sofa that faced the door, was a man. He was young, but a few good years older than herself. He had dark, short curled hair and his face looked as if he hadn't shaved it in the last several days. He had small purple rings under his bluish-green eyes, glasses very low on his nose, and a fountain pen between his teeth. He looked to be in solid concentration as he stared down at one of the many pages in his lap. He then took the pen from his mouth and scribbled something in a notebook that was open against his knee. This surely couldn't be the doctor that her uncle knew from school. He certainly wasn't old, the doctor, or even her uncle, but this man was far too young to be the owner of this manor. Our heroine cleared her throat to alert him of her arrival, her fist politely pressed against her mouth. The young man raised his head towards the doorway, his glasses slipping back up the bridge of his nose. He looked startled, snapped out of whatever trance the pages on the table had bewitched him into. He dropped the pen next to the bottle of ink on the table and cleared his own throat in reply.

"Are you Miss Chilton?" the young man asked, taking his glasses off as he placed them with the pen and ink. Our heroine nodded slowly, as the sound of the trunk hitting the floor could be heard from the front door where the driver had just set it down with a light but sharp thud.

"You aren't Dr. Lecter, are you?" she asked him. He replied to her question with a shake of his head, as she walked further into the room. He was quick to gather up the loose pages and shoved them into the notebook, which he throws to the side next to him on the sofa, in an attempt to spare her the animalistic vulgarities and gore that is sketched onto them.

"William Graham." he introduced himself. "Will." She smiled and told him her name in return with a small polite bow, the way her mother had taught her when greeting someone new. "I'm staying with the doctor, while I do some research." he explained. She stood above him with an odd sense of curiosity, her head cocked to one side.

"What sort of research?" she asked.

"Veterinary. I recently graduated from my studies in the city. There's a large number of interesting animals this far out in the country, and Dr. Lecter has been very kind to let me stay here to further research them." Will explained, with a little more enthusiasm. As he stood up, a few stray pages he missed fluttered down to the ground and under the sofa. He walked around the table and took her hand into his, bowing down to place a light kiss to the top of her knuckles, the stubble on his chin scratched softly against her skin. It sent a small shiver up her spine that she could not blame on the cold. "It is very nice to meet you." he said, looking up into her eyes before unbending his knees and releasing her hand. There was a loud cough from the front door, as Will's attention turned from the beautiful girl in front of him to the carriage driver in the entryway, whose presence he had not noticed until now. Will excused himself as he walked towards the sound, our heroine not far behind him.

"Have you been payed?" Will kindly asked the driver, who was still coughing a bit as he stood beside the trunk.

"Yes sir." the older man with a white beard replied, wringing his hat in his hands. "The man who called for me has already sent payment by mail, taken care of in advance." he said, referring to Uncle Frederick, though he had long forgotten the man's name, something that came with old age. Will reached into his waistcoat pocket, pulled out a coin and placed it into the man's hand.

"For your trouble, sir. Have a safe trip back." Will said, as the driver thanked him. The driver left, as he tucked the coin in his pocket and placed his hat back atop his head. Will turned back towards the young Miss Chilton as the front door closed with a heavy creak. "I'm sorry that I didn't greet you at the door. Hannibal told me that you would be staying with us, but he never said when you would arrive, or for how long you would be staying." he mused, hands behind his back.

"Hannibal?" she questioned, her eyebrows furrowed together in confusion.

"The doctor." Will responded, quickly realizing that she had only known Dr. Lecter by his surname.

"Oh. I see." she smiled in realization. "I'll only be staying a week, at most." she replied, still speaking in a formal manner, until she was better acquainted with Mr. Graham. Her smile was quick to fade however, when she remembered her current situation. It was the first time she had smiled since the tragedy, it made her feel awful. "I couldn't possibly take up more of the doctor's kindness than that, and my uncle should be back from New York long before then." she tried to explain. Will held his arm out to her, a smile creeping onto his face to match the one that had previously been on her own lips.

"Your stay won't be a problem," Will began, as she politely took his arm, wrapping her hands loosely around his bicep. The fabric of his long white sleeve was soft under her hands. "I think the doctor will enjoy your company." Will led her past the table with the yellowed roses and down the hall to the left, intent on showing her around the house before Dr. Lecter became involved. It was darker along this way, the candles in the sconces were burned down almost completely and were in need of replacement. Their footsteps were quiet against the dark, wooden floor as they neared ever closer to the dining room and kitchen.

"What kind of animals do you study?" she suddenly asked, in an attempt to keep the conversation going. That was another thing her mother had taught her, to never be boring, especially in the company of a gentleman. An incredibly handsome gentleman at that.

"Vertebrates, mostly." he said, as they came to the end of the hall. "Cervidae are my particular passion. Any form of deer or elk, actually. Thankfully there are plenty of deer this far out in the country, especially during this time of year." Will opened the door and held it for her. She stepped into the dining room that was just as beautifully decorated as the rest of the house. An old oak dining table was in the center of the room, four matching chairs were placed around the sides of its oval structure. There was a window to the left, that showed the view of the darkened driveway and road; a small table in front of it held a desk clock and another, smaller, vase of flowers that were identical to the ones in the entryway. There was an open archway to the right that led into the kitchen. It was dark inside, and she wasn't able to make out any of the room's details. Will stayed by the door while she walked farther inside, onto a red rug that was laid out under the dining table.

"This is the most beautiful house." she said in admiration, her gaze shifted upwards to the crystal chandelier that hung above the table. Will chuckled as he watched her eyes widen at the sight of the shimmering crystal, the reflection of the candle glow cast dancing shadows and light across her face.

"The doctor has very expensive taste." he laughed.

"Where is he?" she asked, turning back to Will, ending the shadow's dance. "I have some things I need to speak with him about."

"In the study." Will replied hastily, answering her nearly right away, almost interrupting her. "He doesn't like to be bothered while he's working. But...I'm sure he would make an exception in this case." Will held his arm out to her again, and when her hands once again wrapped around his bicep, he led her slowly back down the hall and into the entryway in silence, the only sound came from the floorboards creaking beneath them in certain places. Will walked her down the hallway to the left of the staircase, the candlelight around them dimmed with every step of the way. There was a large wooden door at the end of the short corridor, and Will knocked three times against it. Before the man on the other side could make his presence known, however, Will released Miss Chilton, letting her hands drop back to her sides as he turned away with a nod and left her with the doctor, a small smile across his face that she couldn't see. She turned to face the door just as it opened, a bright stream of light poured out, framed around the tall dark outline of the doctor himself.

Dr. Lecter was taller than her by a mile at least, of this fact she was positive. He had both hands level to his head on the door frame, gripping down tightly on the dark wood. He was breathing heavily, his chest rising and falling against his tight waistcoat. His sharp face looked wrathful, contorted in malice and fury, as if she had interrupted something _very_ important. She jumped back a step, her hands flying up to her chest in self-defense in case the beast of a man decided to strike. As furious as he looked, his eyes were still. Those beautiful maroon eyes, unnatural and calm, were causing quite the paradox with the rest of his body language. She felt her heart stutter, in an odd combination of fear and curiosity. After taking in the sight of her for a moment, the rest of his body seemed to relax, his features softening by the passing seconds. The rising and falling of his chest had shifted to her own, as his breathing stilled, hers became erratic.

"Miss Chilton," Dr. Lecter greeted her, his words flowed like silk. "I am very sorry to hear about your family. Please, come in." He moved away from the door frame and allowed her to step inside the study. All four walls had floor to ceiling bookshelves, not a single book was out of place. A large oval shaped window was on the back wall, blocked out with a thick red curtain. There was a desk in the center of the room, various medical tools were scattered along its surface; shining scalpels, small saws and other sharp but immaculately clean objects. In the middle of the desk was a lump on a tray, covered over with a white sheet of fabric, red soaking through it in small patches, as if it had _just_ been covered over. There were candles everywhere, lighting up every inch of the room. The candles in the sconces in the hallways hadn't made her nervous, but these in the study sent waves of panic through her. It looked as if they could light something on fire at any given moment. Our heroine started to shake, despite doing her best to stay calm in front of the master of the household. She gripped her hands together in front of her, in a desperate attempt to hide her ever growing nerves.

"Thank you." she said, replying to his earlier condolences. "It's been a very difficult few days." Hannibal closed the door behind her, clasping his hands around his back as he walked around to face her.

"I can't imagine." he said. "That must have been a very terrible experience."

"I'd like to thank you, again." she said suddenly, looking up into his eyes. She hadn't meant to speak so quickly, but the shakes in her hands were climbing up to her voice. "It is very kind of you to allow me to stay, I won't be much trouble. My uncle will be here soon." Hannibal shook his head as he leaned back against the front of the desk.

"You won't be any trouble. If you are anything like your uncle, there will be no trouble at all." Hannibal replied. Miss Chilton raised her eyebrows in confusion.

"Is that so?" she asked. Hannibal nodded, a smile crossing over his lips.

"Frederick Chilton, though he is kind and moderately friendly, is a very boring man. Not very troublesome at all. Wouldn't you say so? " Hannibal inquired. Our heroine shrugged, the shake in her hands was beginning to cease with his distraction, though her voice was still incredibly unsteady.

"I haven't seen him in years. I'm afraid that you know him better than I do, Dr. Lecter." she admitted. As much as she wanted to defend her dear uncle, Miss Chilton unfortunately did not know him well enough to dispute his work reputation with the man so kindly allowing her to stay in his home. Because of this, she decided to sail the conversation into a different direction. "Do you find _me_ boring?" she asked him quizzically, curious to know if there were further comparisons between Uncle Frederick and herself. The doctor looked down and then glanced back up at her, ensnaring her gaze with his own.

"I certainly do not." he said, pushing away from the desk as he walked around to sit behind it. The white fabric in front of him was fully bled through with crimson. "You are nothing at all like Frederick, I mean that as a compliment." Hannibal leaned back in the chair, arms tucked behind his head, as he stared up at the ceiling, the glow of candlelight around the room cast him in an eerie shadow. "It feels like a storm is coming, Miss Chilton. Do you feel it?" Our heroine took a step back towards the door, an uneasiness in her stomach.

"I-I'm not sure what you mean, sir." she replied quietly. Hannibal chuckled to himself as, this time, _he_ shifted the direction of the conversation. His eyes left the ceiling as he tilted his head back down to look at her again, his arms dropped down to the desk.

"I'm afraid to say, that the man who took care of the house for me has only recently left us. Which means that I shall be preparing dinner this evening." he began. "You may go upstairs to wash up if you like, you must have had a very tiring trip." She nodded slowly, still a bit speechless from what he had said only seconds earlier.

"Yes, sir. Thank you." she said politely, excusing herself as she turned back to the door. Hannibal didn't say another word as she left, the heavy door closing behind her with a thud. She walked quietly back into the entryway, her small heels tapping against the wooden floors. She noticed that her trunk was now gone, but there was a folded piece of paper on the table, just beside the vase, with her name scrawled across the front of it, messily, like the writer had been in a hurry. She picked it up and opened it. It was a note from Mr. Graham, explaining that he had taken her trunk up to her room for her, and left the door open so that she could easily find it on her own. With the note in her hands, Miss Chilton looked over her shoulder and up at the grand staircase. With a deep breath and a fluttering sense of something unknown bouncing around inside her chest, she began to climb up the stairs to her room.


	2. 'To Hunt, To Pursue'

When Miss Chilton reached the top of the grand staircase, she found herself in the middle of a very long hallway. The lit sconces around her showed that the walls were covered in a deep green wallpaper, with intricate designs painted onto it. The floors were old and made of a dark oak, they creaked with her every step and were in need of replacing, though they felt strong enough under her own weight. There was a door facing the staircase that was locked up tight, and to the far right of this door at the hall's end were a set of black windowless French doors, a small beam of light poured out from under them. To the left there were more rooms, and this is where our heroine began to slowly make her way. There were four doors down the left side of the hallway, two on each wall. The door at the very end on the right was wide open and a bright light shined out of it, pouring out into the otherwise dark corridor. She still held the letter from Mr. Graham in her hand as she walked ever closer to the open door. When she peered inside she found her trunk laid down on the floor at the end of the bed. It was a modestly sized room, but it was just as elaborately dressed up as the rest of the old manor. A lit candle in a stand was placed on the dresser, positioned far away from anything that could catch fire.

Miss Chilton carefully closed the door behind her, trying to do it quietly so that the noise wouldn't echo through the house. She sat down on the edge of the bed, that was draped with red and gold linens, thankful to finally have a moment to relax. The letter from her new friend was dropped down next to her on the bed. Miss Chilton sighed, letting her fingers run down the paper, over the scratchy inked words, absentmindedly lingering over the signature with a fingernail. She smiled to no one in particular as she rose back to her feet and dropped down on the floor in front of the trunk. After going through its contents _(mostly clothes, a small rabbit figurine once owned by her sister that was now coated in ash, a burned chip of wood that used to be part of her home, a slightly scorched C key from her mother's piano...)_ , she took out a periwinkle blue dress and went back into the hallway. She wasn't exactly sure where the washroom was, but her first instinct was the door just across from hers. The knob wouldn't even budge when she tried to turn it and her endeavors were quickly abandoned in favor of the next door. This time she was in luck, as the door swung open to reveal the fanciest washroom she had ever stepped foot into. Miss Chilton was quick to clean up after her long trip and changed into her blue dress. She was careful not to mess up the wrapping around her forearm where her skin was still singed and numb. A glance into the mirror revealed the dark, tired circles under her eyes and she hoped that the two gentlemen downstairs would not take notice. The sound of paper sliding across a surface caught her attention, and she looked down to see another note slide under the door and the sound of footsteps hastily walking away. She leaned down to pick it up, it was written in the same handwriting as the first. After taking her things back to her room, she eagerly read the note. Yet another from Mr. Graham, he had requested her company in the sitting room for the next hour, or until dinner was served. Excitedly, Miss Chilton went back downstairs and slowly walked into the sitting room to see her new friend again.

William was in the exact same place where he had been upon her arrival at Renard Hall, on the sofa, surrounded by drawings and notes and books about his favorite animal. He smiled up at her as she sat down on the sofa across from him, taking a moment to appreciate the sight of her in a different dress. She stayed quiet as his eyes momentarily dropped back down to his book, the fountain pen in his hand continued scratching away at the paper on the table's edge. Our heroine didn't dare disturb him, as it was rude to speak while someone was reading or writing, but she stared in intrigue as he wrote. The words were upside down from her point of view, it looked as if he were writing in a different language. When he stopped writing and set the pen down, she took it as her cue to speak.

"What are you working on?" she asked him. Will gathered his notes into a pile and began sorting through them.

"Tick borne diseases in white-tailed deer." he explained excitedly. "I'm researching how the sicknesses caused by the parasites alters their behavior before treatment or death, and how these changes effect the rest of the population." Miss Chilton stared back at him blankly, but nodded politely.

"That sounds...interesting." she replied, hiding her disgust about the disease riddled insects as best as she could.

"You would think that conducting this type of research during the colder months might be poor timing, but ticks can surprisingly pull through the winter without very much effort and...I'm boring you, aren't I?" he asked, laughing nervously when he saw the confused expression on her face.

"No, not at all, Mr. Graham." she smiled. His work might be a bit...strange, but _he_ could certainly make it sound interesting.

"Oh, please call me Will," he laughed again. "I don't think I'm old enough to be a Mr. Graham yet."

"Will." she corrected herself, laughing along with him now. "I don't find you boring at all. Your work is very interesting, and I would love to hear more about it." Will dropped the pages down in a messy stack. He picked his pen up only to set it down on top of the pages.

"You would?" he asked with a hint of surprise. Miss Chilton nodded.

"Which one is your favorite?" she asked him, as she glanced down at the different kinds of deer sketched on the papers. Will leaned back against the soft cushion of the sofa as he picked up a book beside him. He flipped through the pages until he came to the one that he was looking for. He slid the open book across the table to her and pointed to the picture printed on the page. The deer in the book was smaller than most of the ones she had seen drawn on his research papers or in some of the books scattered around. It had a large rack of antlers, heavy and broad over its head. Will leaned over the table, happy to have finally found someone who was interested in his favorite subject.

"They're called fallow deer." Will explained joyfully. "It's a very common type, especially in Europe, but I like them. They have a very distinct pattern of spots. Some researchers think they might even be a subspecies all their own." Miss Chilton never realized just how interesting deer and their subspecies could be. Or perhaps her interest was more inclined to the researcher himself. She was about to remark just _how_ interesting his work was, when a bell suddenly started ringing behind Will's sofa. Miss Chilton looked up to see a bell attached to the wall, connected to a string that was lightly pulling at the contraption to make the bell ring. Will turned around to face it and then began putting his notes and books into a stack.

"What does that mean?" she asked him as he stood up.

"Dinner." Will smiled, as he held out his arm to her. She stood and accepted his help as he escorted her into the dining room.

The dining room was much more lit up now. The candles on the walls and in the center of the table set the room into a bright yellow gleam, the chandelier above glittered with multi-colored light, reflecting elegantly all over the walls. The table was already set and the extra chair was set off to the side of the room against the wall. Will walked around to one end of the table and pulled out the chair for her to sit down. Will took his seat to her right, he took a moment to smile at her once he settled down in his chair. There was a noise coming from the kitchen then, that was now full of light, though Miss Chilton could not see the person who was making all the noise. Moments later, Dr. Lecter emerged from the kitchen with a silver tray in his hands. The smell of cooked meat filled the room as he set the tray down in the center of the table. The steam from the meal drifted up into the gleaming crystal lights above them. The doctor began to slowly cut through the dark meat, the inside bled a line of light red onto the silver. He cut with precision, careful not to scratch the silver tray with the knife, with carefully trained and steady hands. A surgeon's hands. He placed a cut piece in front of Miss Chilton, then one to Will, and finally one for himself. The doctor then dished a side of roasted vegetables on each of the three plates before finally taking his seat across from Miss Chilton. 

"I do hope that you like venison, Miss Chilton." Hannibal said, a smile cracked the corner of his thin lips. Will's shoulders suddenly went stiff, frozen like ice. Without moving his head, he glanced down slowly at the contents of his plate. Miss Chilton's eyes followed his before focusing back to the doctor in front of her.

"I've...never tried it." she confessed, hoping to change the subject, only for William's sake. The doctor laughed lowly as he picked up his utensils.

"Neither have I." Will added, slowly poking the cooked deer with his fork.

"Well then, there is a first time for everything. It is very good." Hannibal said optimistically before taking his first bite. Our heroine looked back over at Will, as he too began to eat, although quite slowly.

"How long have you known my uncle?" Miss Chilton suddenly asked, taking her own knife and fork into her hands.

"Since medical school." Hannibal answered rather quickly. "We both took courses in psychology before that, among other things. I've known Frederick for a very long time." Miss Chilton giggled a bit, imagining a younger version of Uncle Frederick.

"And what exactly was my uncle like in school?" she asked. Without missing a beat, Hannibal answered her question.

"Snobbish." It wasn't exactly the answer she had been expecting, and the darker tone he had used stopped her in her tracks.

"Oh." was all she could muster, as she played with a piece of carrot with the end of her fork.

"How is the field research coming, Will?" Hannibal suddenly asked, without so much as looking over at the younger man. Will was caught off guard, but he was not quite as rattled as Miss Chilton.

"It's great." Will answered. "I'm planning on going out again tomorrow morning so I can study them further."

"Why don't you take Miss Chilton?" Hannibal suggested, almost lightheartedly, a strange tone took over his voice that put his earlier behavior into yet another emotional paradox. "I'm sure that she would find your research to be quite interesting." Will seemed to perk up after the long stretch of awkwardness that Hannibal had let loose into the room. He looked over at her with a boyish smile, excitement beginning to light up his eyes.

"Would you like to accompany me to watch the deer?" Will asked, in excited anticipation. "It will be quite early, so if you would rather rest after your trip, I wouldn't be offended." Miss Chilton shook her head.

"I would love to." she agreed. "As good as this meal is, Dr. Lecter, I would much rather see a deer alive and up close, and not, well...on a plate." Hannibal chuckled as he finished a bite.

"Duly noted." the doctor said. The rest of dinner was spent in idle chat, without any more awkward silences or strangeness from Dr. Lecter. As the meal came to an end, Miss Chilton rose from her chair, she let out a long and silent yawn.

"Oh, do excuse me. I'm afraid that I'm much more tired than I thought." she said, yawning again against the back of her hand.

"Would you mind taking Miss Chilton up to her room for the night, Will?" Hannibal asked, as he began to clear the table. Will nodded as he took her gently by the arm and wrapped it around his own. "I will bring you up some tea, it will help you sleep." Miss Chilton thanked him before leaving into the hallway with Will. He led her back up the steps and to her bedroom door in peaceful silence.

"If you need anything at all during the night, I mean _anything_ , my room is right next to yours." Will pointed down the hallway at he next door. His mind momentarily veered into the gutter, suddenly realizing that his words might have been taken in a more adult context. Instead of apologizing, he quickly wished her a good night and rushed to his room with a racing heart and a red face. He left Miss Chilton in the hallway, a blush creeping onto her own face as she tried her hardest to suppress a giggle at his behavior. She went inside her own room and sat down on the bed, leaning back to rest her aching shoulders against the softness of the covers. She sighed, letting the tiredness in her bones relax. A moment later there was a light knock on the door and she reluctantly stood up to answer it. In the hallway was Dr. Lecter, with a steaming cup of tea in a saucer in his hands. She allowed him to come inside as he placed the cup on the table by her bed. Hannibal walked back to the door, glancing over his shoulder at her.

"Goodnight, Miss Chilton. Pleasant dreams." He is gone and the door is closed before she can answer. Again, she sits down on the bed, the cup of tea now in her hands. She looks around the room and sighs again. It's much better than the hospital room, but there's a deep longing in her heart to be home. She knows that she doesn't belong here, like a puzzle with an extra piece that has no place to fit. She has no business here with these men, but at least they are kind, or, kind enough. But Mr. Graham has enough kindness to end a war, and a spark in his eyes brighter than the flame on the candle beside her on the table. She takes a drink of her tea. He has a brilliant mind, sharp enough to pierce her own heart if she were to allow it. But she couldn't, not with her uncle only days from collecting her. There will be more men in the city to worry over, she thinks, as she sets the now empty tea cup on the table. Besides, she has much more life to live before she could even dream of settling down. Miss Chilton quickly got dressed for bed and huddled under the growing warmth of the covers. She took one last disapproving look at the lit candle before blowing out the flame.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I did so much research on deer for this that's probably 100% inaccurate but whatever, please ignore me. lol


	3. The Excursion

Gentle knocks on the door quickly brought Miss Chilton out of her peaceful, dreamless sleep. It took her a few moments to realize where she was and where exactly the soft sounds were coming from. She rolled over onto her side in the unfamiliar bed, her eyes blinking up at the door in the dark. The sun wasn't even up yet, as only darkness streamed in through the glass beyond the open curtains. Sleepily, she threw her legs over the side of the large bed and pulled the top cover off as she stood. She wrapped the cover around herself as she quietly opened the bedroom door. On the other side was Will, a friendly smile on his face and no sign of sleep in his bright eyes. Mr. Graham was a hell of a morning person, especially if his animal friends were involved. He was just about to greet her with a good morning when he noticed the bed cover loosely draped around her shoulders; a glimpse of her blue dressing gown could be seen from under it, along with a good portion of skin from her upper chest to her collarbones. The young man turned his head to the side, a blush even redder than the one from the previous night crept up onto his cheeks and across his nose, spreading like wildfire.

"G-good morning Miss," he stuttered out, his eyes now averted to the floor, fixated on the old creaky wood. "If you would still like to accompany me this morning, I will be waiting for you downstairs, we can leave at any time." Miss Chilton forced back a laugh, pulling the cover tighter around her shoulders to calm his embarrassment. She found it to be a bit endearing, especially when his entire face would flush with red. Will, more than likely, felt as though he were acting childishly, and that his new companion must feel the same way. Will cleared his throat and tried again to look up. He couldn't. 

"What time is it?" she suddenly asked, in an attempt to change the subject. His head finally lifted back up to look at her, the heat still pooled along his cheeks.

"It's just past four-thirty," Will said. "We should leave soon, so that we can arrive before the deer." Miss Chilton nodded as Will took a step backward into the hallway, excusing himself before she closed the door. She stripped off the cover and threw it across the unmade bed before she hesitantly lit the candle on the table, keeping her eyes on the flame for a few seconds, willing it to stay in place where it belonged. She dropped down in front of the trunk and dug through the contents until she found a dress suitable for the colder weather. She pulled a few more dresses out and turned back to face the dark, mahogany armoire that stood tall beside the window. She pulled open one of the doors and, to her surprise, found it to be already full of dresses. Light, patterned dresses for sunny days and elegant gowns for more formal occasions, several petticoats, corsets and nightgowns, all woven with the most beautiful fabric she had ever laid her eyes on. She dropped her own clothes to the ground as she reached out to inspect one of the dresses inside, choosing a peach colored gown to run her fingers across. She held it up to her own frame and realized that it was just her size. Now, ever more curious, she replaced the gown and took out a green velvet ballgown. As with the first, this too was just her size. She inspected every single article of clothing that the armoire held inside of it, and sure enough, every single dress was a perfect fit. Miss Chilton hurriedly picked up her own things and shoved them into the armoire, a strange feeling rolling down her spine. She hastily got dressed in her own things, a long-sleeved, high collar white dress with intricate black patterns printed onto the material. Without another thought, Miss Chilton extinguished the candle and left her room before the ribbon of smoke could rise to the ceiling. 

As she climbed down the stairs, she could see Will standing in front of the door, a large book tucked underneath his arm. There were no lit candles to brighten up the entryway, but the lantern in Will's other hand provided just enough light for her to see the room. He smiled again as she descended the staircase, a chill shivered down his arm that caused the lantern to give a slight shake.

"Are you ready?" he asked her, as he held up the lantern to help her see better. She nodded as Will opened the front door, letting her step out first. As Will joined her outside, Miss Chilton could see her breath in the lantern light, the chill in the air bit lightly at her cheekbones. Will held the book under the arm holding the lantern as he wrapped his other arm around hers. He walked her down the steps and around the side of the old Renard Hall. It would still be a few hours before sunrise, so making out any details of her surroundings would have to wait until the sun decided to show. The two of them walked in silence as they made their way into the backyard and beyond. They walked a long distance, through ankle high grass that had already browned from the cold. In fact, most of the plant life they passed seemed dead, though it was difficult to make out in the dim lantern glow. Every blade of grass seemed to crunch under their feet, decayed and lifeless. Trees that they passed were devoid of any leaves, their long spindly branches seemingly reached out for them like defunct, motionless arms, ready to snatch them up at any given moment. Will finally stopped, the lantern swung in his hand at the abrupt halt. He helped her sit down onto a turned over tree, that had fallen down during a rather violent storm the previous spring. Miss Chilton made herself comfortable on the log that used to be a tall oak tree as Will sat down beside her on the grass. He placed the lantern between them, extinguishing the light as they waited for the deer to make their appearance.

They sat motionless for over an hour, not a word spoken between them, their eyes slowly adjusting to the darkness as tiny slivers of early dawn rose above the horizon. By the time the sky started to blush into lavenders and lilacs, there came rustling sounds in the distance. Slowly, the docile animals began to poke their heads out of the brown bushes along the forest's edge. They completely ignored the two humans just a few yards away as they made their way into the clearing. A mother and a small baby nosed their way through the brush, followed closely by several more doe and a stag with a large set of antlers; they looked heavy, like they would shed off soon. Will quietly opened his book, taking a fountain pen from behind his ear that our heroine hadn't noticed before, as he quickly began sketching the silent creatures in front of them. Miss Chilton's eyes followed his every movement, every pen stroke and inked line. While she should have been watching the deer, she couldn't quite take her eyes off of Will's hand and the paper under it. A sudden shiver ran across her shoulders as a cold gust of wind blew past, causing the deer to scatter but not leave.

"Are you cold?" Will asked quietly, a hint of concern in his voice. "Would you like to go back inside?" Miss Chilton shook her head as the shiver ran its course.

"No." she replied, matching his quiet tone. "I'm very happy to watch you work." Will tried to hide his smile from her, her flattery going straight to his head. He seemed to smile at everything she did or said, and the smiles were usually followed by trembling in his hands and the _damn heat in his face_ and there was only so much he could do to hide it from her. As the deer grazed, picking through the dead grass and finding what food they could, Will packed up his book, tucked the pen behind his ear and stood up slowly. He took the darkened lantern into his hand and held out his other one to the beautiful woman next to him. Miss Chilton accepted it as they began to slowly make their way back to the manor. She could see things much more clearly now that the sun was coming up. The early winter landscape was grey and dying, but the peach colored sky above added just the right amount of color to the monochrome wasteland. As they neared the house, something off to the left caught our heroine's eye. Just past the dead gardens was a small, fenced in area, filled to the brim with headstones. The Lecter family cemetery was near bursting, leaving no room for any more headstones or bodies, not even a place for the doctor when his eventual expiration came. It gave the peaceful exterior a haunting feel, like it didn't quite belong there with everything else. There wasn't much time to look, as Will quickly led her back inside the house to escape the growing cold around them.

In the entryway, Will set the lantern on the table with the vase, his book now held firmly against his chest, the pen sticking out from behind his ear.

"Thank you for joining me," he said with his usual kindness. "I really did enjoy the company." With that, Will turned around to the stairs and disappeared onto the second floor. With a smile creeping onto her lips and her arms wrapped around her for warmth, Miss Chilton turned and walked down the hallway to the sitting room. She was going to take a short rest on one of the sofas, but a low roaring sound captured her attention. It was coming from the room beyond the one she was in and she curiously walked towards it. As she rounded the corner into the lounge room, a sudden burst of heat and light struck a spark of panic in her chest. The roaring had been coming from the fireplace, where a large fire in the hearth set three small pieces of fresh wood ablaze. Though the fire was contained and there was no immediate danger, a small but shrill scream burst from Miss Chilton's mouth as she quickly turned and fled from the lounge in near hysterics. She flew down the short hallway and slammed hard into something large and solid. Her screams turned into teary-eyed whimpers as strong arms locked down onto her shoulders, trying to steady her. The doctor was quick to usher her back into the sitting room and sat her down on the sofa that Will usually occupied. She never once heard his footsteps or felt a sense of his presence until his arms were around her. 

"Are you all right?" Hannibal asked as he knelt down beside her. His voice was deeper than normal, ragged somehow. Miss Chilton nodded through her sobs as she tried to force the panic out of her chest, forcing herself to calm down. "I didn't mean to frighten you, I just wanted to make sure that you would be warm when you came back with Will." His voice was comforting, so was his hand as it braced against her lower back.

"I'm sorry, that was so silly." she said, the shaking nearly gone from her hands. Hannibal smiled, wide enough so that his eyes stretched at the sides.

"I will bring you some more tea, it will help." he said, the warmth of his hand leaving her back as he stood up and left the room. He returned a few moments later with a teacup and saucer and carefully handed the scalding hot liquid to her. She let it cool for a few minutes before taking a sip, letting the heat fill her up. The heavy breaths had evacuated from her lungs and were replaced with calmness. Miss Chilton turned her head to the window on her left, where a few stray flakes of snow were drifting down to the dead grass below.


	4. The Winter Garden

With the teacup still warm in her hands, Miss Chilton was carefully escorted up the stairs by the doctor. He held a firm grasp on her upper arm to steady her, and although she did not need the help, she was more than willing to accept his kindness. Hannibal led her down the right side hallway, where the double French doors were. He stopped just in front of them and opened up the left door for her, ushering her inside. The doors opened into a bright and beautiful sun room. The back wall of the rectangular room was made up of wavy green glass, frosting over with icy blue from the fierce cold from outside. The ceiling was domed over in the same glass, shaped like a pyramid spiraling upwards, framed in heavy green steel. The room was filled with plants and flowers of every color imaginable, in vases and pots, scattered around on tables and shelves and in boxes of soil. Two yellow wingback chairs faced each other in the middle of the room, the fabric speckled with white flecks. Sitting in one of the chairs, a stack of books in his lap and a pen behind his ear was Will, a look of deep thought had been crossed over his face until the door had opened. Will turned his attention to the sound and immediately closed his book when he saw Miss Chilton, with the worried expression she wore and the slightly shaking teacup in her hands. Will stood up as Hannibal sat our heroine down in the chair opposite his. The teacup still shook a bit as her hands came down to rest in her lap, the small spoon rattling against the side of the white and gold porcelain.

"Are you all right?" Will asked, as he knelt down beside her chair, his hand flew up to push his glasses onto the top of his head. Miss Chilton nodded and she looked up at the doctor with a smile of thanks.

"Just a mild shock of panic, William." Hannibal said, looking down at his guest as the spoon still rattled in her hands as if she held an earthquake in them. "She will be just fine." He smiled back at her, an expression of comfort that put her more at peace. She took a long deep breath as she tried to calm her tremors. She felt incredibly silly at her reaction to the fireplace. Of course there would be a fire, as the temperature had dropped severely since just that morning. She couldn't have her hosts freeze to death because of her fears. Though the embarrassment still lingered inside of her, she felt like a child afraid of her own shadow. 

"I'm very sorry for my behavior." she said, her eyes never leaving Hannibal's. "I didn't mean to disturb your work." Hannibal's smile widened a crack, though he looked as if he were holding something back, compressing an unknown emotion. Miss Chilton nearly recognized it as joy. 

"You have nothing to be sorry for. Please, rest in here for a while. You don't mind, do you William?" the doctor asked, as his eyes finally snapped away from his guest to his younger companion. Will shook his head, unable to contain the excitement of spending more time with his beautiful new friend.

"Not at all." Will replied, as he backed away from our heroine and reclaimed his seat across from her. With a nod, Hannibal excused himself and headed back into the hallway, his heavy footsteps creaked back to the staircase. Will looked up at Miss Chilton, his sweet boyish smile wide across his face.

"Are you feeling better?" he asked, taking the pen from behind his ear as he flicked it around nervously in his hand. Miss Chilton nodded before taking a sip of her tea, the deep brown liquid was growing colder as the snow fell down onto the glass above them.

"Much. Thank you." she smiled back. The tea was doing a fantastic job at calming her nerves, for which she was very thankful since she was back in the company of such a charming young man. William was silent for a few moments, searching his mind for something to say with each twirl of the pen.

"If you start feeling bad again, you should talk to the doctor about it. He's trained in more than just medicine and he's a very good listener." Will suggested as the pen came to a stop in his hand. "It makes me nervous to see you...well, nervous."

"I make you nervous?" she asked as she continued to drink her tea, no matter how cold it became. Will chuckled and looked down at the floor.

"In a way." he replied. "But I think maybe talking to Hannibal about...that night, might help. It's never good to go through such a dark and horrible time all alone." The sky above was growing darker with grey clouds as the snow began eclipsing the view from the ceiling, covering over the glass in frozen flakes.

"I'll do that." Miss Chilton said, finishing the contents of the teacup. She set it down on a table beside her, under a wilting red rose. "Who takes care of all these plants?" she suddenly asked. Will looked around the room at the other wilting flora.

"The butler did, before he left." Will replied. "It's a shame really, that the doctor is just letting them die like this."

"Why did he leave?" she asked him. "The butler, I mean."

"He was old, it was getting harder for him to get up and down the stairs. He just retired, not long before you arrived." Will explained, his thumb tracing over the top of the pen. "But I wouldn't worry too much about it, I think Hannibal should be hiring a new one next week. Besides, your uncle will be here soon..." He trailed off at the end, a ping of disappointment tapped against his chest from the inside.

"Right." she said, sensing the same feeling in her own chest. She brushed it to the side and replaced it with good feelings conjured by the promise of a new life, a happy one that she would be spending with her uncle. Though she couldn't quite ignore the very different feelings that the handsome young man across from her was leaving in her heart.


	5. The Thing That Roams at Night

A sudden rush of panic caused our heroine's eyes to flash open. She rose up in bed, blinking through the darkness of the night, struggling to make out shapes of the furniture in the room around her. She hadn't had a nightmare, she was positive. But something was wrong. She could sense it deep inside as her heart thudded against her ribs. She looked over to the door, overcome by the bad feeling. She threw the covers off and dropped her feet to the floor. She didn't even bother throwing on her robe as she opened the bedroom door. It was happening again, she knew it. She could almost smell the musky stench of the smoke filtering through the hallway. Something was on fire, but she wasn't for sure where it was. Our heroine closed the door behind her as she set off down the hallway, overly careful not to creak a floorboard despite feeling the need to scream until the two men woke up. There _was_ a fire, it _was_ happening again, and she _had_ to find it before someone got hurt. She walked over to the staircase and peered down to the entryway, everything looked normal, no smoke, no flickers of orange flame. She turned to look down the hallway at the far end, but could see nothing to be alarmed over. Though everything was just fine, Miss Chilton couldn't help but worry, the feeling had buried itself deep down inside and was rotting away somewhere, only she couldn't find it. With a stuttered breath, she turned back towards her room, taking slow steps to the door. Suddenly, seconds after she had stepped without a sound, a floorboard a few feet behind her creaked, ever so gently. Our heroine stood frozen in place, finally feeling the cold chill in the air around her as the adrenaline from before was leaving her body. Her own breath was visible in front of her eyes, coming out in soft shudders. She heard another creak, closer than the one before it. Miss Chilton turned around to face whoever it was, expecting Will or the doctor to be standing in the hallway with her.

But there was no one else in the hallway, and our heroine's heart skipped a much needed beat at the absence of being. She suddenly felt very much not alone, even though she could see no one, she _knew_ that someone was there with her. Miss Chilton turned back to her room, a rush of panic setting her feet back into motion. She took a single step and creaked the floorboard beneath her. She paused, stuck in place, hoping that Will wouldn't wake up and find her losing her wits in the hallway. As she was about to step forward, something unseen ahead took a step towards her. Whatever had just been behind her was now close enough ahead that she heard the footstep itself and not the creak. Curious and very afraid, she took another step closer to her door, wondering exactly what was going to happen. Whatever was lurking in the darkness took a quick step and creaked the loudest board in the floor. With the adrenaline flooding back into her veins in full force, Miss Chilton scrambled down the hallway, taking the last remaining steps in three large strides. She threw open her door and slammed it shut behind her, the sound echoing like a shotgun through the sleepy old house. She twisted the lock and fell down into the corner under the window, shivering and convulsing with terror. She screamed out, nearly tearing her throat as something began slamming its fists against the locked door. Loud frantic knocking that wouldn't cease echoed in her sensitive ears as our heroine screamed for whatever it was to go away. A panicked voice on the other side of the door began calling out to her as the beats against the door sped up. Miss Chilton almost didn't recognize it, but the instant she heard him she rose up and threw herself at the door, scrambling to unlock it with desperate fingers. The instant the door opened, a pair of strong arms enclosed around her shoulders, gathering her up into a ball of shaking limbs. 

"What happened?" Will asked, his eyes wild with fear. She didn't answer him, instead, she clung tightly to his back, her nails digging down into the flesh at his shoulder blades. She whimpered against his chest as he pulled her back inside the bedroom, the door coming to a close behind them. Will sat down with her on the edge of the bed, her nails stinging into his back as she shook in his arms.

"I-I think I'm going mad." she whispered into his chest. His hands slid up and down her back in an attempt to calm her down, his fingertips running along the dip of her spine.

"No you're not." he said, his breath warm against the side of her head. "Tell me what happened." he asked again. Miss Chilton shivered at his touch as his hand drifted over the back of her neck.

"I thought...I thought the house was on fire." she stuttered, as she released her tight grip on his back, letting her hands curl softly around the white fabric at his sides. "It's not, I know. But I could have sworn..." Will shushed her, his hands firm on her upper back.

"I know." he said calmly. "Everything is just fine." He rocked her back and forth until the fear subsided. She was just about to tell him what had _really_ scared her. But she decided against it at the last minute, in fear that he might think she was crazy.

"I'm sorry I woke you, I'm just not myself, Will." she whispered, the sound of his name falling from her lips caused Will's breath to hitch.

"You really need to speak with the doctor." he said, not forming it as a suggestion, but more as a command. "For me? _Please?_ " Miss Chilton nodded against his collarbones, reluctant to take the advice, but willing nonetheless.


	6. The Session

Miss Chilton sat alone in the study, fidgeting slightly in her chair. She could hear the whispered words between Will and Dr. Lecter coming from the other side of the door, though she couldn't make any of the words out this far away from the door. She was following Will's instructions, to finally speak to the doctor about her little bursts of panic. It was later in the morning, after the thing in the hallway had played its little game with her and, as hard as she tried, she couldn't quite get rid of the tremors surging through her hands. She held them in her lap, clasped together so tightly she could feel her pulse beating through them. She jumped a little bit when the door opened and the doctor came in, leaving Will behind in the entryway. Hannibal walked over to sit down in the chair opposite her, crossing one leg over the other as he let his arms hang loosely over the armrests. He stared at her without saying anything, keeping his eyes focused in one spot, the center of her forehead. Miss Chilton didn't say a word, she was waiting for him to begin. He stayed this way for a little while, but soon, with a sigh, the doctor finally opened his mouth to speak.

"What do you remember about the fire?" he asked, still staring without blinking, eyes narrowing to the spot on her head. Our heroine looked down at her hands, they were turning white from being held so tightly. She let them relax, watching as the white flared her skin with red as the blood settled back into them.

"Smoke." she said softly. "And screaming. I...I remember waking up to the screams, my sister's first, then mother's. I think daddy was already dead, that's what the nurses at the hospital told me, anyway." Her hand absentmindedly reached over to her bandaged arm, lightly stroking her fingertips across her sleeve. "I went into the hallway, it was filled with smoke. I ran towards them, towards their voices, but there was this...this wall. A wall of pure flame. That's how..." she trailed off, keeping her eyes down. She didn't like the look he was giving her, and the fact that he hadn't blinked yet unsettled her deep inside of her bones. 

"How you were burned?" Hannibal asked, his eyes dropped lower, following every move of her hand as it ran along her arm. Miss Chilton nodded, letting her hand rest on top of the covered over bandage. "When was the last time you changed your bandage?" he asked. "Have you been taking proper care of your burn?"

"Yes. It was changed when I was at the hospital, before I left. The nurses did it." she replied. "It wasn't that bad of a burn." Hannibal wasted no time as he stood up and gently took her arm into his hands. He rolled up the sleeve, to observe the condition of the burn. Miss Chilton gasped when he pulled her sleeve back. The once white wrapping was now stained with red and a sickly dark orange, the colors seeped through, making grotesque patterns like watercolors. Hannibal turned her wrist around in his hands, a look of disapproval on his face.

"It must be changed immediately." he said, as he carefully placed her arm on the chair and turned away from her. He walked over to a cabinet and begin rifling through the shelves. Miss Chilton simply stared down at the horror on her arm in disbelief. It had _not_ looked like that this morning, she knew it. She had seen it as she got dressed, it was perfectly fine. The burn hadn't been that severe in the first place, in fact, the doctors at the hospital hadn't seemed too concerned over it. They simply cleaned it up, wrapped it, and changed the bandage every day until she left. She had seen the burn several times with her own eyes, it had been healing. But now, she wasn't sure if she wanted to see what it looked like under that bandage. Miss Chilton looked away, she had to. She glanced over to the desk once the doctor's back was turned, where the strange bloody object had been the night she had arrived. It was gone now, and in its place was an open medical book, the rest of the desk was spotless. No medical instruments, no strangeness, nothing out of the ordinary. When Hannibal returned, he carried a roll of fresh bandages in one hand and things to clean the burn with in the other. Miss Chilton snapped out of her trance and put her focus back on the doctor. He knelt down in front of her and began unwrapping the old rotted bandage from her arm. He peeled it away and Miss Chilton turned her head away from it, closing her eyes up tight. She heard the doctor chuckle.

"Is it bad?" she asked him, opening one eye to glance over at his face and not the wound. He was smiling. It made her feel silly.

"Not at all, just a little bloody." he replied, as he began softly scrubbing the dead, oozy skin and blood away. "A little bit of blood never hurt anyone." She couldn't feel any pain from the wound, it was still numb in places where the nerves had been slightly damaged, but all she felt was the occasional pull of skin as he lightly cleaned away at it. 

"The wall stopped me from getting to them." she said, suddenly continuing her story as Hannibal began dabbing liquid medicine onto the burn. His eyebrow raised slightly, but his eyes were still locked on her arm, his hands working with a doctor's precision. He kept quiet, his silence urging her to continue. "They were on the other side of it, screaming like I have never heard someone scream before. I couldn't get to them." Tears began to roll down to her chin and she used her free hand to wipe them away.

"You left them? In the house?" Hannibal asked almost cruelly, as he placed the edge of the new bandage to her arm, slowly rolling it around the burn. She turned her head back to fully look at him, now that the burn was covered up. What an awful question to ask.

"I didn't want to." she admitted. "I wanted to die in there with them, if I wasn't able to save them."

"So what changed your mind?" the doctor asked, as he tied the wrapping up.

"I don't know." she said. "Something in me just...wanted to run. I was so scared, my arm hurt, I just wanted out of that house." Hannibal rolled her sleeve back down, smoothing the fabric with his long fingers.

"Did you know the man who saved you?" Dr. Lecter asked, changing the subject as his hands pulled way, but they lingered on the armrest. Miss Chilton shook her head, struggling to pull the man's face into her mind.

"He was a neighbor. He knew my father, but I didn't know him very well. I can't even remember his name. I think he and his wife visited me in the hospital, but I can't remember." she explained. Hannibal stayed beside her, kneeling down on the floor instead of returning to his own chair.

"What else _do_ you remember?" he asked, a strange feeling of dread was radiating from him, a beastly sort of sun.

"Nothing. Just the smoke, and the screams."

"What about the next morning? In the hospital." he prodded her further.

"I woke up, there were nurses everywhere. I was the one screaming this time. They told me what happened. Then the rest of the time there was sort of a blur. They gave me a trunk of things that was salvaged from the fire, the note from my uncle, then I came here." Hannibal stared intently at her as she explained everything to him. His demeanor suddenly changed again. He was calm and patient and listened to her every word with intense concentration. He _was_ a very good listener, just as Will had promised.

"What can you tell me about this morning?" he asked. She of course knew the doctor would ask her about what happened to her in the hallway, but she debated with herself over whether or not she should reveal the whole truth. She started off by telling him exactly what she told Will that morning, about how she thought the house was on fire, so she went out to investigate, just to make sure that it wasn't. That, of course, _was_ the truth. But as had happened with Will, she discreetly omitted the part of the story where an invisible creature was stalking her in the hallways in the early hours of the morning.

"I'm sorry if I woke you." she said, once she finished her explanation. "I knew nothing was wrong, but I overreacted." Hannibal cracked a small smile and looked down to the ground to hide it.

"Then why did you slam the door?" he asked, the smile gone, a more serious look had quickly taken its place. "Why were you screaming when Will came to help you?" Miss Chilton froze in place, like one of Will's deer friends caught in the sights of a hunter's gun.

"I just, got scared. That's all." she answered after a brief pause. "I didn't mean to frighten Will." Hannibal stood up, finally leaving her side as he disposed of the rotted bandages.

"It's quite all right." he said, his back to her. "Mild or severe paranoia is very common after suffering such a horrible trauma like you did. I wouldn't doubt that most people in your situation might suffer from shocks of panic or shaking. In severe cases, it is not uncommon to see patients suffer from delusions or even auditory hallucinations." Our heroine's shoulders dropped, her eyebrows furrowed close together in confusion. 

"Auditory hallucinations?" she asked slowly, curiously. Dr. Lecter turned back around to face her, he leaned back against the front of his desk.

"Hearing strange things that aren't there." he explained. "You haven't been hearing things, have you, Miss Chilton?" She shook her head in a false sense of ignorance.

"No, doctor. I can't say that I have." she lied. Hannibal looked over his shoulder, at the window behind him. The large window behind the desk had been covered over upon her first visit to the study. But this time, the heavy red curtains had been pulled to one side, revealing the large, oval shaped window. The entire plate of glass was stained red, as if it had only just been splashed with paint. The window was as red as the sticky rot that had collected in her bandage, she could see the snow falling just behind it, like tiny flakes of frozen blood falling to the ground, some of it was sticking to the glass.

"Good." Hannibal remarked. "I hear they can be quite frightening situations to be in. Especially in episodes of dissociation. You haven't experienced anything like that, have you?"

"I-I don't think so." she stammered. He didn't look convinced.

"Have you been in a situation where you felt as if you weren't in control? Where something inside your head was in charge of your body?" His questions were starting to frighten her. The idea of something else being inside of her head and completely taking control of her entire sense of being was a terrifying thought.

"I haven't been myself lately, Dr. Lecter, but I have certainly been in full control." she countered. Hannibal stepped away from the desk and walked in front of her.

"I didn't mean to offend, Miss Chilton. I am just trying to explain the medical side of things, perhaps we can reach a diagnosis that way." he said, rolling up the long sleeves of his white shirt before crossing his arms over his chest. He turned his head towards the window, where the snow was beginning to accumulate against it and along the outside walls of the manor. "It doesn't look like it's going to stop any time soon, does it?" the doctor asked, another hidden smile cracking at his lips.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The last few chapters have been mostly Will chapters. But there's going to be a lot more of Dr. Lecter showing up in your future. :)


	7. Sunshine

As Miss Chilton looked out of her bedroom window into the dark night, snow falling lightly against the glass, she scratched lightly at her bandaged arm. The skin had become itchy as the wound was finally starting to heal. Hannibal had warned her of this before she left her session, and that she absolutely should _not_ scratch it. She hadn't realized what she had done until she looked down to see tiny pools of blood seeping through the wrapping. She cursed to herself as she let the curtains fall back into place, turning around back to the bed to finish getting dressed for that evening's dinner. A horrible thought had been running through her mind all afternoon after the session, a thought sparked by the sudden storm as she was going up to her room. She tried not to think about it too hard, she had plenty of things on her mind as it was, and the doctor didn't need her getting all worked up about things again. Just as she had finished pulling her dress over her head and smoothed it down over her legs, there was a knock at the door. A knock she had been eagerly expecting. She blew out the candle on the dresser, thankful for the flame to be extinguished and carefully navigated to the door in the dark. On the other side was Will's smiling face, a smile that struck a certain chord in her, a smile that released a flurry of butterflies into her stomach every time she saw it.

"Good evening, Mr. Graham." she said, in a make-believe tone of fancy. Will's smile widened, he couldn't contain it if he tried. 

"Good evening, Miss Chilton." he replied, trying to match the tone, playing along with her little game. Miss Chilton giggled, her hand covering over her mouth. Will's sweetness had momentarily taken her mind off of what was causing her so much distress. It wasn't until the two of them were descending the stairs, arm in arm, did the thought come back into her head, hitting her like a train. She looked over at Will, heart fluttering inside her chest like tiny moths in her ribs. She knew that she wouldn't be able to make it through dinner with all of these concerns, so she decided to put all of her trust in her handsome companion.

"Will?" she said softly, as they stepped down from the last step to the ground floor. He turned his head to her, ready to listen. "I'm afraid." she said, the smile gone from her face. Will's arm tightened slightly around hers, protectively in instinct.

"Of what?" he asked, his free hand reached up and rested against her shoulder, the warmth of his fingertips seeped into the thin fabric of her dress, it put some of her troubles at ease.

"We're all snowed in. What if my uncle doesn't get here in time? What if something bad happens to him out there?" she confessed her stresses, the hand at her shoulder began to run up and down her arm, in long comforting circles.

"Everything is going to be just fine." he promised. "It might be kind of selfish, but I'm rather grateful for the storm."

"You are?" she asked. Will nodded confidently, something in her demeanor swept a sudden rush of courage over him.

"I am. Because I get to spend more time with you." he said, as he began leading her towards the dining room once more. A soft blush crept onto her face. She had never had such a sweet man shower her with so much affection before, especially one who held beams of sunshine in his eyes. Will escorted her into the dining room where dinner and tea had already been scattered across the table, only moments earlier. Will pulled out her chair and helped her sit down in the same spot at the table as before, careful not to hit her burn with the arm of the chair. He sat down to her right just as Hannibal emerged from the kitchen, silver tray in hand.

"Good evening." the doctor said to his guests, as he set the tray down onto the table. He began cutting into the contents of the main course, a dark slab of steak, bleeding just a bit as he sliced it down the center.

"Good evening, Dr. Lecter." Miss Chilton smiled up at him. Steam from the tray flowed out of the large steak as the doctor continued to cut it into three pieces. Will gave his greeting in the form of a nod as Hannibal served up the meal.

"How are you feeling?" Hannibal asked her, as he placed a piece of the pink meat on her plate.

"Much better." she said. "I think the cold is helping, strangely enough." The doctor smiled as he finished placing the steaks on plates.

"Very good." he nodded. "At least the snow is good for something." Hannibal picked up a bowl of roasted vegetables, all diced up. He took a large spoon from the bowl and dished some of them onto Miss Chilton's plate.

"I do worry about Uncle Frederick, though. What if he can't make it through the storm?" she said, a ping of worry tapped at her heart. Hannibal shrugged as he placed vegetables onto Will's plate.

"I would not worry." Hannibal said, finishing up with the vegetables. "Frederick might be delayed, perhaps. But I am quite sure that he will do his best to come and get you, once the snow clears. It would be too dangerous for him to travel in such a mess." Miss Chilton sighed silently with a small huff of her chest. It was definitely _not_ the answer she wanted to hear. She wanted confirmation that her dear uncle was safe and sound, on his way right now in a carriage to come and get her, to take her home. But it was a confirmation that she would not be able to receive, for it just wasn't possible to know for sure where Frederick was, or what condition he or the roads would be in. Only time would tell.

When dinner came to an end, Miss Chilton excused herself, thanking the doctor for yet another lovely meal, and another small token of thanks for his help earlier that afternoon. The doctor simply smiled in reply, a straight smile with with no paradoxes to be seen. Will took her arm into his as he began to lead her back into the entryway. As they got to the steps, Will stopped walking.

"Would you care to join me in the sitting room?" he asked her, the confidence he showed so strongly before was wavering, fear of rejection was beginning to creep up his spine. Miss Chilton nodded, there is no rejection in her smile.

"I would love to." she replied. With the courage quickly replacing the fear, Will escorted her into the sitting room where they sat down in their usual places. The table in front of them both was already littered with his research; drawings and notes and torn out pages of notebooks, scribbles here and there. Our heroine glanced down at one of the pages, half tucked under a book.

"It's a shame that your work has to be delayed because of the storm." she remarked, her fingertips lightly touching the page she had been staring at. Will chuckled nervously.

"At least I can still see them grazing in the yard from the upstairs windows." he said. Miss Chilton tugged lightly at the page.

"Do you mind if I take a look?" she asked, looking up at him for an answer. Will, a bit bewildered that she would be so interested, nodded quickly.

"Of course," he answered, pulling the book that he always carried with him out from under one of the sofa pillows. He hesitantly handed it to her. "But I must warn you, some of the things in there, well, might be more...explicit...in nature." he explained in small stutters. Miss Chilton accepted it and carefully placed it onto her lap. She opened the cover, where his name was scrawled out in the same handwriting as the notes he had left for her. She turned a few pages, where long passages of research notes were written, alongside inked sketches of a few stags. The next page was inked with the skeletal structure of both genders of the deer. Next to it were red watercolors of the nervous systems, surrounded by unintelligible notes. The pages that followed covered the digestive system, the organs were painted in a rich blue; the page of the muscular forms were marked in with the same red as before, a deep blood color, with bits of white; the respiratory and other systems were splashed in with a purple, made with the previous colors combined. She flipped through the book's pages, watching as the deer formed in front of her eyes, as they built themselves with the help of the ink and color throughout the pages. She managed to tear her eyes away for just a moment so that she could look up at Will.

"This is beautiful." she breathed a sigh of awe as her gaze dropped back down to the grotesqueness in her lap. This wonderful man took something that could be considered disgusting and turned it into art. 

"You...really like it?" Will asked, a sudden wave hit him, an intoxicating feeling that he had never experienced before. Miss Chilton nodded without looking away from the book.

"I love it." she smiled widely as the looked through the last of the pages with markings, a little under half the pages were still blank. She came to the end and closed the book. "You are very talented, and so smart." she said, letting her emotions fall where they may, not caring if she was coming on too strong. She gently handed the book back to him, where he took it from her with shaking fingers. Will held the book against his stomach, firm enough so that she couldn't see how much his hands shook with whatever this was that he was feeling.

"I don't know what to say," Will began, his heart stuttering in admiration. He has a sudden urge to gather her into his arms, like he had that morning when she was so scared. He didn't like seeing her that way, but he certainly did like the way she felt against him. Despite the rush of passion coursing through his veins, he remained still, he didn't dare move. "That...means so much to me." he said, trying to reclaim power over his own breathing.

"Well," Miss Chilton said, as she stood up. "I think I should probably head upstairs, it's been a very long day." Will pushed the book aside and quickly scrambled up, banishing any remnants of his feelings as he held an arm out to her.

"I can take you up to your room, if that's all right." he said, holding a tight fist so that she couldn't see the tremor in his hand. Miss Chilton gladly accepted his arm as he began walking her back to the staircase with slow, hesitant steps. When they stopped in front of her bedroom door, Will was even more hesitant to release her arm from his. Her hand slipped down his arm until it met his own hand, in a light touch, barely even there. 

"I wanted to thank you again, for this morning." she began, looking up into his stormy eyes. Will blinked a few times, not at all used to such a beautiful woman paying him attention, especially when she was holding his hand as tightly as she was now. "I didn't mean to alarm you, and you certainly didn't have to do what you did. I don't want you to think that I'm crazy-"

"You aren't crazy." Will said, quickly slipping his words in front of hers. "You were scared. If I had gone through what you've been through, I'd be scared too." He made a slight move towards her then, nothing more than a twitch of his muscles lurching forward. He froze in place, her hand warm around his, afraid that he might be pushing things a bit too fast. He was overly cautious of accidentally scaring her. He behaved as if she were a deer in the vast backyard behind the house. Staying perfectly still, or the beautiful creature might get frightened and run away. He wasn't a hunter with harmful intentions, she wasn't a trophy to be mounted to a wall; he was simply an observer, look but do not touch, do _not_ harm. The observer and the deer must be kept separate, they may temporarily occupy the same space, but one belongs in a modern world, the other in its own place, safe in the wild with its own kind. Soon a man would come and take the deer away, to be with her own kind, and the observer will be left all alone with his books and drawings and notes. But in this moment, for a very short while, the observer was content with just being able to see her, to be comforted by the light and warmth she provided in such a dark, cold and lonely place.

"I don't feel scared when I'm around you." she said. "You make me feel safe." Will sighed, releasing a breath he didn't know he was holding. Against his better judgement, his hand slipped away from hers, as his arms slowly wound around her back, palms flat against the curve of her spine. He leaned forward, bringing his face closer to hers. Will pressed a light kiss to her cheekbone, where her skin instantly flushed with red. Will pulled away before she could properly react, his hands fell to rest at her sides.

"Goodnight, Miss Chilton." he whispered, as he released her entirely and turned away. Miss Chilton stood stunned in place, a rush of heat flowing through her face and neck. She watched as Will disappeared down the stairs, his footsteps echoing back into the sitting room. She shook her head, trying to rid herself of the paralysis in her legs and arms, to shake the heat from her face. Her chest was rising and falling with short rapid breaths and she leaned back against her door the instant she could move again. She sighed in contentment, the feeling of his skin against hers still stung in the most wonderful way. Her eyes focused straight ahead, at the door just across from hers. She wondered what was behind it, another bedroom? A closet? An entrance to a hidden attic filled with treasure? She giggled silently to herself, she was loopy with emotion caused by her handsome friend, she was just being silly now. Miss Chilton walked the few steps across the hall and pressed her hands flat against the mysterious door. She moved the doorknob but it was still locked up tight. She laughed to herself again, giving up quickly on account of the sleepiness making her eyelids heavy. She turned back and went into her own room, hoping that the monsters would leave her alone for the night.


	8. Cold Heart, Warm Heart

Miss Chilton awoke from a dreamless and peaceful sleep, to the faded grey light streaming through the curtains. A glance at the clock on the wall beside the door informed her that she had slept in rather late, missing the morning entirely. With a stretch of her arms high above her head and a long yawn, our heroine sleepily pulled herself from the warmth that the bed provided. The room was chilled, and she instantly missed the comfort of being in a warm place. She hastily got dressed, wrapping her arms around herself as she stepped out into the hallway. There is a faint sound of music coming from Will's room as she passes by his door, footsteps tapping along the floorboards as if the man inside were pacing back and forth in thought. She wanted to knock, to see his shining eyes and kind smile, but she quickly decided against it, not wanting to bother him in case he might be busy. Miss Chilton quietly descended the staircase, a shiver ran down her shoulders as she discovered that the rest of the house was even colder than her own room. As she slipped into the sitting room, the icy window immediately caught her eye. And as she stood in front of it, watching as blurry flakes of snow fell on the other side, obscured by the wavy, frosted glass, Miss Chilton became lost in thought.

Many thoughts crossed over her already cluttered mind. Worries of her uncle's safety, deep hopes that he would make it through the snow, hopes that he wouldn't overturn his carriage on the way and die in a snowy wasteland, unable to get help, only to be found once the spring thaw hit and melted all of the ice away. The carriage might go over the side of a cliff, though there were no cliffs close enough from here to Baltimore that could endanger him, at least, none that she knew of. But it could happen, and she would never know his fate, only the fact that he never came to get her. Maybe he would never come at all. Perhaps the letter was nothing more than a lie, a trick to wind up her hopes only for them to crash down when the realization hit that no one would be coming for her after all. But she knew that her uncle would come, he had always been there for her, despite only meeting him a handful of times. She thought of Will, too. What would happen to him once she left. Would he be sad? Or would the promising young man move on, to bigger and better things, find someone better than her. Surely his feelings weren't real. _I'm clearly just a distraction while we're all snowed in._ she thought. _Someone to talk to, to charm. Certainly such a wonderful man would have higher standards than a traumatized orphan, too afraid to even light a damned candle._ As she pondered on these thoughts and feelings, Miss Chilton did not notice the heavy footsteps slowly creeping up behind her.

"Admiring the view?" Hannibal asked, as the young woman jumped out of her own head and possibly her own skin. She turned to him, a hand cradling over her thumping heart.

"Oh! Dr. Lecter. I didn't hear you come in." she said, breath wavering in surprise. The doctor simply smiled, his eyes wrinkling at the sides, a cup of steaming hot tea in his hands.

"You look cold." he observed, his gaze dropping to her hands and then back up to her face. He held the cup out to her, the steam from the tea rose up from the cup and disappeared into the chilled air. "I know you will not sit in front of a fire, so I thought this would be a more suiting alternative." Miss Chilton reached out and accepted the cup with icy fingers. She thanked him as the heated porcelain stung her skin, warming her up far too quickly. Her fingers danced around the cup, trying to find a comfortable place to put them where they would not burn. She blew air against the liquid, the warm amber tea rippled as the steam rose up faster than before and floated away. She took a long and grateful sip. "Are you still feeling all right?" the doctor asked. Miss Chilton nodded.

"Yes, I don't know what got into me before." she laughed quietly. "I'm feeling much better." Hannibal nodded slowly, watching her lips intently as she took another sip.

"What do you plan on doing when you get to Baltimore?" he asked suddenly, letting out a long deep breath. "Your plans for the future?" Our heroine shook her head, pondering over the question for a moment.

"I don't know. I haven't really thought about it." she admitted. "I-" She laughs. "It's silly, really."

"Dreams are never silly, Miss Chilton." the doctor smiled.

"Well...I've always wanted to be a writer." she said. "Stories have always intrigued me, especially telling them. I used to write a lot when I was young, just dumb little things, anything to make my little sister laugh. I would read them aloud to my family after dinner. They weren't very good, I'm sure, but I don't think they would ever have told me that. I always wanted a family of my own, one day, to tell silly stories to. But...it just isn't possible..." She stared down at the swirling amber in the cup, dancing around in a circle with loops of a darker brown. "I haven't written anything in so long, perhaps once I get home to Baltimore, I'll start again."

"Perhaps something here might inspire you," Hannibal said, voice low. "A fairy tale...or maybe even a love story." Her eyes snapped up to his, the maroon of them ensnaring her. Miss Chilton didn't quite know what to say. Surely he didn't mean anything by that. Certainly he didn't know of her feelings, about the boy with light in his eyes. But the look on his face was shrouded with seriousness, she could see that his shoulders were tensed. Fear began to nip at her heels, but then, his smile returned, as if nothing had been said at all. "Please, excuse me. I have...work to attend to. I would very much like to have another session soon, to keep up with your progress." And with that, the doctor turned his back to her and disappeared into the hallway. He left her by the cold window with a funny feeling in her chest, a strange warmth spreading over her collarbones. She took another long sip of tea, emptying the cup as she let the the amber warmth soothe her. She didn't like the feeling the doctor gave her; every time they were alone together she felt like a tiny animal locked up with a beast, mere seconds away from strong jaws that would snap her up and chew her bones. It was a thrill all its own that she couldn't quite describe, it made her dizzy. Miss Chilton set the cup down onto the table in front of her. She had a strong desire to see Will, to be in the safety of his company where the snapping jaws could not reach. She picked up her skirts from dragging along the floor and made her way up the stairs again.

The music in Will's room was now stopped, and the doors to the sun room were wide open. Her heart sped up the closer she came to the doors, rushing alongside of her as if they were in a race. She could barely contain her desire- no, her desperation, to see Will's lovely face in the light of the sun room. She ran to him, her footsteps creaking loudly along the floors. She entered the light in the doorway, halting as her eyes searched for him in the room. Will was sitting in his same place, surrounded by his usual notes and books, his head was turned to the doorway, alarmed by the hurried sounds.

"Hello, Will." she said in a whisper. She hadn't thought about what she was going to say to him, or even an excuse as to why she had been running down the hallway like a madwoman. All she could say was hello. But then his worried expression turned into a smile, and Miss Chilton could feel the sunlight it provided; warm and glowing against her skin, as if there was no snow at all, only the beautiful rays of blinding sunshine. While Hannibal had his paradoxes, Will had ones of his own. The raging blue storms in his eyes also held the bright sun, a beautiful contradiction that never failed to pull our heroine into a state of pure and loving peace.

"Hello, Miss Chilton." he replied, letting the hand that he had been writing with drop to the page of his book, the pen rolled into the inside crease of the open spine. Miss Chilton's chest was rising and falling, out of breath from the run and the cold air that had knocked out the rest. She comes back into herself the moment he smiles, and she brings enough sense back to walk over and sit down across from him.

"Are you feeling all right?" he asks. Not like the doctor had, he wasn't asking about her mental state at all, but the unmistakable look in her eyes, a look that someone only has when they are searching wildly for something, the look that was currently fleeing away now that she had found what it was that she needed. Miss Chilton nodded, a deep breath finally coursing through her lungs, the much needed oxygen was calming, more than welcome as she breathed it in.

"Yes." she said, afraid to admit the truth to him, that she had been frightened yet again, a little rabbit who is always running away. "I'm feeling much better now."

"Is the cold still helping?" he asked, unblinking, not able to look away from her until he was certain that she was all right. Another nod from our heroine confirmed the answer.

"I think that maybe the storm has frozen most of my troubles." she said, looking into the storms he held, they were still staring back at her. "For the time being, at least." The sun room was the coldest of all the rooms in the mansion, as most of it was made up of the high walls of glass, letting the frost from the outside seep in. The breath coming from each of them was visible in front of their eyes, the air harshly cold around them. But neither Will nor Miss Chilton took any notice, they were both perfectly warm, heat radiating from the inside out. Will moved then, just slightly forward. But before he could catch himself and stop, he kept moving forward. He leaned across the remaining space that kept them apart, bracing both of his hands on the arms of her chair. Will knelt down on the floor in front of her, his eyes never leaving hers. He reached up and took her lightly by the waist, pulling her closer to him. A hand slipped up behind her neck as he drew ever closer, his other arm winding its way behind her back. His cold lips trembled against hers, softly at first, but then with more pressure as the gap was finally closed. Miss Chilton absentmindedly wound her arms around his shoulders as both of his hands held firm against her shoulder blades. The kiss was brief, but straight to the point. He pulled away, but didn't go far, his lips brushing against her own, restraining himself from moving too fast.

"If the cold will protect you, then so will I." he whispered, his gaze momentarily dropped down to her lips before looking back up. "I won't let anything hurt you."


	9. Questions

After visiting with Will in the Winter Garden, Miss Chilton went downstairs and headed off towards the study. The doctor had mentioned wanting to go through another session with her, and as much as she didn't want to open up to him, he was probably right, she did need to talk to someone about what was going on. She came to the door and knocked on it gently, she could hear the doctor on the other side, walking up closer to her. The door opened to reveal Dr. Lecter, a wide and warm smile across his face. It seemed odd to our heroine, he didn't seem the type to smile so brightly, or even smile positively at all. Nevertheless, she returned the smile, it was only in her nature to be polite, after all. He ushered her inside the study, where the chairs were already positioned across from one another, as if he had anticipated her arrival all along. Miss Chilton sat down, her hands tight in her lap. She kept her eyes focused on her fists as the doctor sat down in front of her, and though she could not see, she could sense the smile still on his face. There was a cup of tea on the table beside her, steam rising from it, waiting for her.

"What would you like to talk about, Miss Chilton?" he asked softly, as if he were speaking to a rather mature child. Miss Chilton shook her head, eyes still cast down.

"Whatever you would like is fine." she replied. She wasn't sure why she was suddenly so nervous. She had come here of her own free will, despite not wanting to open up, she still came here, but that smile... That smile set her nerves alight.

"You mentioned earlier that you weren't able to have a family, would you like to talk about that?" he asked, the smile wavered.

"I- um..." she hesitated, but continued on. "I was in an accident, as a child. It was very severe, and it left me not able to carry any children." The doctor nodded as he took a notebook from the table beside him, he began to scribble notes in an intricate handwriting that Miss Chilton could not see.

"What happened?" he asked. She finally looked up at him, his dark maroon eyes made her shudder, but she hid it from him well.

"I...don't really want to talk about that, not just yet." she replied, the cold making her voice quiet but higher in pitch than normal. Hannibal nodded, his hand still hovering above the notebook, jotting down words in between her answers.

"How are you feeling? Is the cold still helping?" he asked. Miss Chilton nodded as he mirrored Will's words from earlier. A strange coincidence. "Have you had any more frights?"

"I'm feeling a lot better." she said, taking the teacup from the table and bringing it up to her lips, letting the warmth soothe her once more. "The cold is wonderful, I love this time of year. I don't think I'll have any more frights." Hannibal chuckled then, lowly.

"Let us hope not." he said, letting the subject change. "You and Mr. Graham seem to be...getting along quite well." Miss Chilton swallowed a mouthful of tea. She only nods.

"Will is a very good friend." she said simply. "I am very glad that I met him." The smile returns to the doctor's lips.

"I have known William for a very long time." the doctor began. "He is a very good friend of mine." Miss Chilton placed the saucer in her lap and she rested the half empty cup on top of it.

"How long will he be staying here? At Renard Hall?" she asked him. Hannibal set the pen down next to the notebook. He leaned back into his chair.

"He will leave once winter ends." Hannibal explained. "Around mid-February, most likely. He has been here since late November, to watch the animals, of course." He leaned slightly forward, his eyes dropped down to her hands. "How is your burn?" Miss Chilton looked down, where her sleeve covered over the bandage that wrapped around her burned arm.

"I think it's still all right." she said. Hannibal stood up from his chair and dropped to one knee in front of her. He gently picked up the cup and saucer and placed it on the side table. He took her arm into his hands and rolled up her sleeve to reveal the white cloth bandage underneath. She let him unroll it and take it off, her eyes staying locked onto his hands. Under the bandage was slightly bumpy red skin, but that only meant that it had healed considerably since the last time she had seen it. Hannibal rolled up the old bandage and set it down on the table. He ran his long fingers over the burned skin, light as a feather. It did not hurt her, but she jumped a bit anyway. His fingers only tightened around her arm, but not enough to inflict any pain.

"I don't think you will be needing another bandage." he said, looking over the reddened flesh of her arm. "I think it's healed enough, but if it gets worse, just come back to me, all right?" Miss Chilton nodded in agreement as he rolled her sleeve back down. Hannibal stood up, taking the old bandage with him as he crossed the room to throw it away. Miss Chilton took another sip of tea in his absence, looking up at the ceiling to see tiny particles of dust flying throughout the air above. Once the doctor was turned back to her, coming back her way, he said, "The butler isn't here to clean up anymore, I'm afraid."

"Will mentioned that you will be getting a new one soon." she said, as she set the saucer back onto her lap. Hannibal sat back down across from her, crossing one leg over the other.

"Yes, though it will have to wait until the snow stops." he chuckles again. "But that will be after you have gone to Baltimore."

"Right." she replied sadly.

"Surely you won't miss this cold old house." Hannibal remarked.

"I'll miss the company..." Miss Chilton replied absentmindedly, catching herself only after the words had left her lips.

"Yes, so will I." Hannibal replied, without missing a beat. Miss Chilton's heart thumped harshly against her chest, and she quickly finished the remaining tea in the cup. "You may go now if you like." he said, closing the cover of the notebook as he spoke. "Enjoy the rest of your day." Miss Chilton sat up as she placed the empty tea cup on the table. She thanked the doctor for his time and patience and quickly left the study. She closed the door, keeping her back against it for a brief moment, letting a long sigh release from her lungs before she returned to her room.


	10. The Devil's House

Early that next morning, just before the sun could rise above the horizon, blocked out by snowy grey clouds, Miss Chilton was sleeping, cold but comfortably in bed. She could feel herself awakening, the silence of the room filling her ears as she sluggishly came into consciousness. She tried to flutter her eyelids open, but they would not move. She tried to turn her head from side to side, but her neck would not budge. Neither would her arms or legs, as she attempted to move her joints. A rush of panic instantly washed over her, as she found herself to be completely paralyzed. Her mouth would not open to scream, and her vocal chords had been rendered silent. Her body shook slightly as she struggled to move even a muscle, light tremors flushed over her skin. But when she first heard it, Miss Chilton halted her attempts to move, but only for a moment. When the footsteps pacing slowly over the creaking floorboards began to get closer to the bed, Miss Chilton screamed out in her head, screaming for her limbs to awaken, for her voice to return. She thrashed wildly in her mind, desperate to move even the slightest inch. Then, as the icy cold breath hit her ear, she stopped her attempts once more, frozen in place with fear.

 _"You're trapped here, in this cold, tomb of a house..."_ the voice whispered. It seemed so far away, yet so close that she could feel the presence of the woman, her very soul just beside her, the woman's cold dead lips against her ear. _"You will become a skeleton, to live among the others inside. There is no safety, there will be no mercy from the wicked one."_ Miss Chilton struggled once more against the bonds of her paralysis, she could feel tiny trembles of feeling in her fingertips, it pricked lightly against her lips like needles.

"W-who is the...wicked one?" Miss Chilton whispered, in a hoarse voice that tickled at her dry throat. She could feel the woman smile against her earlobe, the icy breath returned.

 _"The man with the knife..."_ she said. _"Don't you know? This is the Devil's house."_ It was then that Miss Chilton rose fully upright, wide-eyed, gasping out loud for breath, sweat slick across her entire body. The woman was gone, as if she had never been there in the first place. She nearly screamed out in relief, her hands grasping at her chest, patting against her skin to make sure that she was awake, her fingertips pressed against her racing heart. She looked over to the window, covered over by the curtains. She could see the faint early morning light streaming through the part of the two curtains. Hesitantly, she dropped her still shaking legs to the floor and went to get dressed. She bundled up her day dress under her arm and walked out into the hallway. She could hear soft, muffled music coming from Will's room as she opened the washroom door. A smile crossed over her face at the thought of him. It was a welcome distraction after her rude awakening. Miss Chilton quickly washed up and put on her dress, a faded light blue sundress with loose long sleeves to cover over the red mark on her arm. She wondered then if it would leave a hideous scar, an ugly reminder of the horrible night she nearly burned along with her family. She shrugged the thought away, she was not ready to confront those thoughts. It was best to leave some doors closed. She returned to her room, only briefly, to put away her things. She eagerly began walking down the hall, once she heard silence coming from Will's room, and the open doors of the Winter Garden ahead, inviting her inside.

When she came to the middle of the hallway, a whisper behind her made Miss Chilton turn her head towards it, stopping the woman in her tracks. She had heard it, she would have sworn by it. She couldn't make out the words, but she was certain that she had heard them. She quickly got her feet back in motion as she neared ever closer to the end of the hall. Miss Chilton stepped into the light of the open doors, a smile lighting up across her face once she saw the man sitting inside. Despite looking much more tired than normal, stubble along his jaw and circles under his eyes, Will returned the smile, a boyish smile, crooked on one side. Will stood and wrapped his arms gently around her, encompassing her with radiating warmth that felt so inviting, as if he was pulling her away from the cold. She felt his lips press against her cheekbone for only a slight moment before he took her by the hand and sat her down in her chair.

"I don't think you'll ever know how much your company means to me, Miss Chilton." Will said, the warmth in his body carried into his words, she felt it coil around her heart. "You give me feelings that I can not begin to describe." Will continued, as he closed the doors and sat down across from her. There was something different about him, there was a look in his eyes that seemed almost...wild. Wild like the very animals he studied so closely. There was only a hint of it, a spark, but Miss Chilton took quick notice of it. She tried to reply to him, but she was seemingly stunned into silence, unable to speak, much like the way she felt that morning. But instead of fear, Miss Chilton felt something quite different coursing through her body, caused simply by the raging thunderstorms the man across from her carried in his eyes. Will moved forward, hesitant, begging her permission for something she didn't quite know yet. She answered him with her own eyes, an unspoken grant of whatever the man wished. Will sunk down from his chair, his knees dropped to the floor. Before she knew it, Will had crawled over to her and gathered her waist into his arms, his warm hands pressing lightly into her lower back. He looked up at her with those stormy eyes of his, the wildness in them ever more prevalent. She could feel her chest rising and falling in combination with the flutters of her heart, as Will's hands slid down from her back and along the length of her legs.

"William..." she breathed out in a heated whisper. He made no reply, as his eyes left hers and his hands slid up under her skirts, sliding slowly up along the back of her thighs. He disappeared completely then, under her dress, as her back pressed firmly against the chair, her eyes slipping closed once his mouth began leaving kisses along her bare legs. Her hands gripped down tight on the arms of the chair the instant his lips found the source of her overwhelming heat. Miss Chilton leaned her head back, pressing it roughly into the chair as her spine arched forward. She bit down hard on her bottom lip, bringing a hand up to cover over her mouth, desperate to hold back any sound that might slip out. She wanted to touch him, to brush her hands through his soft hair as his mouth continued to move slowly against her. The blood in her veins boiled at the thought of watching him as he did this to her, the heat rose up to her cheeks and across her nose as she imagined it. She wanted to pull her skirts up so she could do just that, to watch him, but she did not dare. The thought of it was nearly better than the action. So she kept one hand over her mouth and the other grasping tightly on the arm of the chair, as she focused on his hands gripping under her thighs and the slow movement of his tongue. Her legs tightened around his shoulders as the heat rose to its highest point and burst from her core. She wanted so desperately to scream out his beautiful name, to sing out his praise, but Miss Chilton could only manage tiny whispers. She chanted his name over and over, in a voice so quiet and small, not even she could hear it. Then Will was in front of her again, his face red, the wildness gone from his eyes. He looked at her as if he had misbehaved, or done something wrong.

"Are...are you all right?" he asked in a quiet stutter, his lips parted as he looked over her with hooded eyes. She nodded, letting her eyes open to meet him, still breathless. Will's arms wrapped around her, bringing her upper half flush against his chest. Her own arms wound over his shoulders and held him close, her chin resting on his shoulder, the side of her face nuzzled against his ear.

"I'm perfect." she replied, letting her eyes close again. Any thought of the voice from earlier had melted away. Nothing could harm her with Will so close.

But on the way back to her room, without him by her side, she caught the whispering again, echoing softly down the dark hallway.

 _"You should not have done that...he'll be furious with you..."_ Miss Chilton scrambled away from the voice, her breathing still ragged from moments before, as she quickly rushed down the stairs and emerged into the entryway. She gave herself a moment to calm down. There was a nagging feeling now, to be around someone, _anyone_. She turned her head towards the study, hesitant but desperate. She wanted Will, but that would mean going back up... _there_ , with the voices. And she was far too embarrassed to see him so soon after he had... She swallowed hard and forced her legs to move in the direction of the study. Miss Chilton knocked on the door before opening it and peeking inside. She could see the doctor, he had his back to her as he looked out the large oval window with the red glass.

"D-doctor Lecter?" she called out to him. He turned slightly to the sound of her voice. His arms were crossed over his chest, his long white sleeves were rolled up to his elbows. He looked...resentful, almost irate. He doesn't move a single muscle, not even a flinch as she closed the door behind her. "I'm very sorry to bother you, I just...needed someone to talk to." she explained as she walked up to his desk. Hannibal turned to face her, the resent now gone from his features, he looked like himself again.

"I am always here to listen." he replied. They sat down in the chairs across from one another, the doctor was ready to listen, as promised.

"Do you think I'm..." she struggled to find the right word. "...crazy?" she asked finally. Hannibal shook his head.

"You are not crazy, Miss Chilton." he replied quickly.

"But I've done nothing but...shake like a baby lamb since I arrived here. I wasn't always so...well, like this. I've never been so nervous in all my life, Dr. Lecter." she cried.

"It is simply your trauma, I assure you." he said. "You watched your family die, of course you would come back from that with scars. Both physical and emotional."

"What about mental scars?" she asked. Hannibal sighed, thinking a bit before answering.

"There is nothing wrong with your mental state. Just the trauma. It will go away, with time." he said, as if he were rushing through the conversation, almost desperate to be rid of her. "Do _you_ think you are crazy?" he asked suddenly. Miss Chilton looked down at her hands and shook her head.

"I'm not so sure anymore..."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's starting to get creepier and sexier. It's almost better than a fourth season. Well, almost. ;) I hope you enjoyed my badly written sex scenes, there's plenty more to come.


	11. A Breakthrough

"What do you mean by that?" the doctor asked, leaning back into the chair. His eyes were entirely fixed upon her, once again trapping her in place. Miss Chilton kept her eyes cast down to her hands, purposely avoiding his gaze. She shifted her fingers along the top of one hand, tapping each knuckle.  
  
"Have you ever felt as if you're going absolutely crazy, doctor?" she asked, a shiver in her throat. Doctor Lecter simply shook his head.  
  
"I can't say that I have." he replied. "Why do you feel that way?"  
  
"It's just..." she sighed, trying to think of the appropriate answer. "So much has happened in such little time, I'm not entirely sure how to handle it all. It's overwhelming to say the least." This could refer to many things in Miss Chilton's life. She thought of her mother, then, her scream of monumental pain as her flesh burned down to the bone. She thought of her sister, a scream much higher in pitch that echoed through her head, she could hear it just beside her ear now as the audible thought tore its way out and into reality. Miss Chilton jumped a bit, flinching away from where she thought she had heard the sound. A thought of her father appeared, slumped over his desk, already dead from the smoke before the flames could reach him. She hadn't seen them die, of course, but she had pieced false memories together based on what she had been told by the nurses back at the hospital. She swallowed hard, trying to pass the lump that had formed in her throat. The doctor watched as she became more and more restless. She didn't want to think about any of this. She was far from ready to face what had happened, and what she could or could not have done to stop it.  
  
"Of course, that's understandable." the doctor remarked, unblinking, listening intently, urging her on. Miss Chilton reluctantly obliged.  
  
"I have never known a life without my family, and I don't really know Uncle Chilton all that well, to be quite honest. It's rather frightening, having your life burn away, only to be picked up and dropped somewhere entirely different, to start all over again." The doctor nodded his head along with her words, scanning over her pink lips as they trembled, watching her form each individual syllable. He developed a stern look on his face, as if his own thoughts faded into her words as she spoke. "I miss them more than words can say, and..." she trailed off. Hannibal perked up then, if only slightly, a raise of an eyebrow.  
  
"And, what, Miss Chilton?" he asked, voice low and smooth. His hands gripped down on the arms of his chair, then he relaxed them only to grip down once more.  
  
_Grip, relax, grip, relax, grip..._ An obsessive compulsion began in the form of his fists digging in and out of the chair.  
_  
_ "And." she resumed. "Leaving them inside that house to die is the biggest regret of my entire life, Doctor Lecter." Our heroine sighed, hot tears prickling at the corners of her eyes. Her pink lips continued to tremble as the tears crashed down her cheeks; the maroon eyes of the doctor followed each tear as it fell, cascading down her cheekbone, dipping down between her lips and ending its journey as it dropped down from her chin and onto her chest, absorbing into the fabric of her baby blue dress. "I should have gone back, I should have just ran through the fire, I could have done something. Maybe...maybe I could have saved them. Not daddy, but mother, and my sister..." The thoughts she had wished not to think of began to pour into her mind, flooding her head with fire and smoke, memories of the smell of burning wood, of burning flesh where the flames had licked her arm. She began to panic; her little limbs shook like tree branches in a storm, the cold numbness returned to her quivering fingertips; her chest heaved with hollowed breaths, it was tight inside her rib cage, her lungs filled with faulty smoke, smoke that stung deep into her eyes and she desperately tried to blink it away, but it was everywhere and nowhere all at once. Her icy hands grasped at her throat as the smoke coiled inside and blocked out her desperate screams for help. The scar on her arm began to burn white hot, as if the wall of flames was lurching at her once more. Her panicked and wide eyes looked up at the doctor, silently begging for his help as she struggled and convulsed with sheer terror from her fiery memories.  
  
But Doctor Lecter said nothing. Doctor Lecter _did_ nothing. He stayed there, his back straight against the chair, his hands folded atop his crossed legs. A thin smile across his sharp, dark face. Unbothered entirely. As Miss Chilton desperately pleaded with silent screams in front of him, Hannibal Lecter stared back at her with a look of sheer enjoyment.  
  
"It's all right, Miss Chilton." he said, his voice now as soft as the falling snow outside the red window. "This is all perfectly normal." He watched her for a few seconds more before he got up and stood directly in front of her. He took her small hand into his much bigger one, his long fingers wrapped around hers tightly. He knelt down beside her, his other hand came up to rest on her covered knee. Once he touched her the panic snapped away, the smoke had cleared and everything was back to normal. There was no more burning, no more fear. Her hand was now warm inside his, her blood was pumping at its normal rate. It was as if she had snapped awake from a nightmare, much like the one from that morning. The only remnants of the terror was the light heaving in her chest, she was nearly out of breath from the experience.  
  
"What is happening to me, doctor?" she cried, voice small and weak, the tears resuming their journey down her cheeks. Hannibal's smile widened, his eyes narrowed at the sides. "What...what happened?"  
  
"You are getting better." he said, the low rumble of his voice reverberated through her, she could somehow feel the sound in his hand, through her own.  
  
"Do you call that better?" she asked angrily, referring to her attack. The doctor nodded his head.  
  
"Sometimes you must experience trauma to be rid of it." he replied, his thumb circled over her knuckles. "It is a strange process, but I assure you that it works." Miss Chilton flinched back against the chair, her eyes snapped up to look at him, to _really_ look at him.  
  
"You did this on purpose." she whispered. She tried to pull her hand away, but his grip on her tightened, as did the grip he had on her knee, tight, but not painful. He stared back at her, something was hiding behind his cruel eyes.  
  
"I did nothing but listen, Miss Chilton, as you wished." he said. Something flashed in his eyes at that moment, finally revealing itself, there and then gone in a flash. Malice. A black shadow crossing over the maroon, like a dark cloud shifting across the full moon that blocks out all the light, quickly sent away by the wind. A chill rushed down her still trembling spine. Miss Chilton tried once more to free her hand and this time the doctor relented, letting her easily pull out of his grasp. Miss Chilton pushed past him and stood up, quickly turning on her heels so that she could see him. He stood up as she had done and he looked down at her. "I am always here to listen." he added, as she took a step back. Frightened, our heroine took several more steps backwards until her back hit the closed door. She reached for the knob, turned it, and fled the room.  
  
The door slammed against the wall behind her as she flew up the stairs, pulling herself up each step with the help of the strong wooden railing. She took a sharp right turn and bolted in the direction of the Winter Garden. Stepping into the faint grey light of the open doors she was met with nothing but an empty room. Two empty chairs, a myriad of dead flowers and plants, and the icy glass walls that shielded her from the impending night outside. It was almost night. How had she lost so much time? Her heart skipped a beat, where had he gone? Miss Chilton backed out of the room and rushed back down the hallway, her heels loudly tapping against the old wood flooring. She stopped at William's door, her shaking hand reached up and frantically knocked against it. She clutched both hands to her chest to still her heart, still struggling to catch her breath from her ordeal downstairs. The sound of footsteps could be heard walking towards her, then the door opened to reveal Will's smiling face. The smile dropped into a concerned frown once he saw the state of her; shaking with fear and cold, a frightened little doe on weak, quivering legs; eyes wide, as if she had only just narrowly escaped the hunter with his rifle pointed in her direction. Without a word, William pulled her into the room, his arm carefully weaved around her waist as he closed and locked the door with his other hand.  
  
"Please, don't be scared." he said, whispering against her forehead, the stubble from his chin tickled against her nose. Her arms wrapped around his back and her hands clung tightly to his thin white shirt. His long sleeves were rolled down, hanging loosely from his arms. The top three buttons were open, exposing his collarbones, the warm skin pressed against Miss Chilton's cheek as he pulled her close into his chest. "I know you can't control your fears, but nothing is going to hurt you, not while I'm around, I promised you that. Please don't worry." he murmured, his chin now resting on top of her head. His strong hands held her against him, one on her lower back and the other smoothly ran up and down her spine, coaxing her into relaxing. Will pulled back only to press soft kisses around her face; her nose first, then he trailed his lips up along the bridge as he placed one to her forehead, slowly making his way down her jaw before nudging his way under her chin to her neck. Her grip on his back tightened, the white cloth of his shirt was trapped in her fists as she melted into his touch.  
  
"Will..." Miss Chilton whispered, her breath hot against his open skin. It sent a wave of goosebumps across his neck and chest as he shivered against her, his own breath hitching in his throat, temporarily pausing his kisses. His hands moved from her back as they caressed her waist, sliding up her rib cage to the buttons of her dress that were heaving against her chest. He stopped, looking into her eyes as a form of asking permission. Miss Chilton nodded breathlessly as his fingers began to work the buttons, each one he opened revealed more of her to him. He pulled the fabric away, exposing the tops of her breasts, rising and falling with heavy breath inside her corset and under her slip. The dress dropped down from her form, a sea of blue pooling around her ankles. She was left in only her slip and corset to cover her and while she should feel embarrassed, Miss Chilton didn't feel a single ounce of embarrassment. Instead, she hastily returned the favor by undoing the buttons of his shirt.  
  
The shy and usually timid William Graham had also disappeared, a beautifully dark shade of blue overtook his eyes as they dropped down to watch her work his own buttons, his jaw slightly slack. Little did Miss Chilton know, but her eyes had turned as dark as his had, hungrily saturated with pure passion. She slowly slipped his shirt over his shoulders and down his arms, letting it drop to the floor along with her dress. The sight of him bare chested at last sent a wave of heat into her cheeks. His arms looked much stronger than she had anticipated, she felt a sudden and desperate need for him to pick her up, to leave the ground and have her weight be fully supported by him.  His hands returned to her back, pulling her ever closer as his lips finally met hers, sending a wave of bliss into Miss Chilton's chest. Her arms wrapped around his shoulders, pulling herself upwards. Will granted her wish as his hands slid under her legs and he lifted her high into his arms. Her legs kicked her dress off of her ankles as they tightly wrapped around Will's waist.  
  
Will walked her closer to his bed, not once breaking away from her lips. He set her down at the foot of the bed, only then did he pull his mouth away from hers. He knelt down to her legs, running his hands down the soft skin, along her stockings, until he reached her shoes. He carefully took them off and lightly tossed them to the side. He slid his hands back up and began to remove her stockings. Her legs shook with excitement under his warm touch, she squeezed her thighs together in an attempt to keep still. Will finally made his way back up, standing in front of her as he started to remove his belt. He pulled it from the loops around his waist and it dropped with a thud as the metal buckle hit the wooden floor. It made her heart jump with another rush of excitement. She kept her hands in her lap, gripping the hem of her slip as Will continued to undress. She swallowed hard, her entire body shaking, but instead of fear, Miss Chilton was now shaking with pure anticipation. Will removed the rest of his clothes and stood bare before her. Her eyes slowly dropped down to Will's thick cock, erect against his stomach. She started to slide the straps of her slip off of her shoulders, her hooded eyes never leaving Will's as she did so. She stood up in front of him as she removed it entirely, letting it pool around her ankles like her dress. She slowly removed the rest of her undergarments, leaving only the small corset left. Will shed any remaining nervousness as he took her in his arms once more and placed her on the bed against his pillows. He climbed on top of her, slipping in between her long legs, his hands above her, gripping the headboard.  
  
He started his kisses again, slow and tedious along her neck. Her hands clung onto his shoulders, weaving around his back in constant movement, wanting to feel as much of him as she could. He breathed raggedly against her neck, his fingers quickly and sloppily trying to untie her corset. Miss Chilton shivered with heat and cold at the same time as she finally felt him, hard and twitching against her inner thigh. Will sighed in frustration, still struggling with the corset. She kissed along his neck in encouragement, running her hands up and down his back, his shoulder blades shifting under her palms. Once the corset was loose enough, he gently pulled it over her head and away from her frame and gazed down at her, finally naked and beautiful before him in the dim candlelight. Miss Chilton was so overcome with passion, that she didn't even notice the many burning candles all around Will's room, lighting up the space for his research. Sketches of stags and doe lined the walls, eyes staring down at her, some with empty sockets in skeletal heads, some half formed with muscle over bone, some covered in fur, some with no skin at all. Will dropped the final garment to the floor behind him. His head dropped down and he recaptured her lips with his own, his hands grasping softly at her breasts. Her thighs tightened around his hips in reflex, her entire body still shaking wildly, her heart beating rapidly inside.  
  
Feeling more bold, our heroine slowly trailed her hand from his shoulder, down his chest, ever more slowly inching lower. Will moaned from deep in his throat as the tips of her fingers gently rubbed the head of his swollen cock. She took more of him into her hand, curious, as she felt his blood pulse through the small veins at her touch, feeling him twitch in her hand, a thin line of wetness dripped slowly from his tip. Will's shoulders shook as she stroked him up and down, his mouth found its way back to her neck as he nuzzled her skin, reveling in the feeling of her small hand wrapped around him. He then raised up abruptly, his hand lightly grasping at her wrist, forcing her to stop. She let go. He took a deep breath before reaching the hand down between her legs, his fingers petting softly at her wet folds. She moaned loudly, covering her mouth with her hand before she could do it again. Will's fingers dipped into her heat, allowing more of her own wetness to drip out into his hand. Miss Chilton cried out into her palm, doing her best to muffle the sounds. Will's fingers pulled out, stroking up to her most sensitive area, just barely brushing against it. She squeezed her eyes shut, back arching involuntarily upwards as she nearly screamed out against her palm, a wave of intensity crashing over her.  
  
Will began to stroke himself, leaning his hips closer to hers. He knelt down, his arms sliding around her back as his throbbing cock slipped inside of her. Miss Chilton's back arched again, pressing her breasts roughly against his chest, her nails dug wonderfully into his shoulders. He thrust slowly, inching himself all the way in. He kissed along her shoulder as he continued to slowly roll his hips into her heat. She buried her face into his neck, pressing her lips tight against his skin to make sure she didn't scream, she couldn't alert the doctor, not now. She moaned into his neck, pulling him closer to her chest, her hand weaved into his hair. Will's thrusts became more hurried and fevered as her wetness slicked up his cock, making it much more easy to slip in and out. He was as gentle as he could be, making sure that he wasn't hurting her, but saw to it that she was well and thoroughly taken care of. A wonderful heat began to slowly form in her lower stomach as Will's cock hit _just_ the right place inside of her. Will's eyes closed up tight, pressing his forehead to hers as his release was inching ever closer. His thumb began to rub circles over her nearly oversensitive clit. Her legs tightened around his waist, moaning lowly into his neck as she gripped down on his shoulders. Will began to mumble that he was close, and began to pull out.  
  
"No-" Miss Chilton begged, her hand reaching down to stop him. "Please...stay inside..." Will breathlessly nodded, rolling his hips into her, quickening his pace, still rubbing against her clit. With a low groan Will spilled himself inside her, thrusting shallowly as Miss Chilton's own orgasm rushed through her. She bit down on her lip to stay quiet as Will rubbed her until there was nothing but the aftershocks. He held her tight as he came down from the high, pressing soft kisses over her collarbones and breasts. Miss Chilton lay beneath him, her eyes blissfully closed as his mouth trailed over her. Will pulled himself out of her and rolled to her right side. Miss Chilton could feel what he left behind dripping out of her, the thought sent a wave of heat across her face.  
  
"I shouldn't have done that." Will said, voice still ragged and out of breath. She opened her eyes and looked over at him curiously.  
  
"Shouldn't have done what?" she asked him. Will suddenly became bashful and looked up at the ceiling.  
  
"I shouldn't have..." he stammered. "Done that inside of you." Miss Chilton smiled, the blush flared up along her cheekbones.  
  
"Nothing will come of it." she assured him, as she sat up and pulled the covers over the both of them.  
  
"Are you sure?" he asked, as he sat up beside her, his hand rubbing up and down her back. Miss Chilton nodded.  
  
"I um..." she began. "I can't have children."  
  
"Oh." Will replied quietly. Miss Chilton blushed again before pulling the covers away from her body. There was a long, thin scar along her hip that Will hadn't noticed while in the moment, it traveled across her lower stomach to a thicker scar under her bellybutton.  
  
"When I was younger, I was chasing my little sister around the backyard, playing a game. I tripped..." she explained, as she traced a finger over the scars. "I landed on a very low fence, it surrounded our garden. Wrought iron. One of the spikes went right through me, it just missed my spine, but it pierced all of the important parts you need to have a child." Will looked down at her back where another scar was, on her lower back, where the spike had come out, it looked like a misshapen star. "It seems like I have physical scars for all of my bad memories..." she said, looking down at the healing burn on her arm. "Do you think less of me?"  
  
"Of course not." Will replied, covering her back up to keep her warm. "Every part of you is beautiful." He pulled her close to him, as the candles around them were starting to burn out, sending the room into near darkness. Will pressed a kiss to the back of her head as his eyes fluttered closed and he drifted into sleep. The sounds of his soft snores were comforting to Miss Chilton, as was the warmth he provided, his arms wrapped around her, his chest against her back. She began to fall asleep beside him, her heart fluttering in contentment. She was nearly asleep when the cold chill pressed against her ear and the woman began to whisper...  
  
_"You should have listened to me..."_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back after a (very) long hiatus. I'm very sorry for the wait, but surely this makes up for it. ;)
> 
> (I still can't write smut, oh dear lord I am sorry.)


	12. The Morning After

Miss Chilton yawned deeply as she woke up, stretching her tired and stiff arms above her head, her knuckles grazed the headboard. She rolled over, about to cuddle up against Will, but as she opened her sleepy eyes she found that the other side of the bed was cold and empty and that Will was gone. She sighed with disappointment and reached over to the empty space, running her hand back and forth along the place where he should be. There was a long, horizontal rectangle shaped window to her right, the dim, clouded sunlight filtered through the curtains and illuminated her half-naked body with dreary grey light. She stayed there for a moment, a bashful smile on her face as she remembered what had occurred only hours before right where she lay. She had never seen that side of Will before, and while she adored his soft and sweet side, she could definitely see herself getting used to his wilder side. A sudden shiver coursed over her as she suddenly realized just how cold it was in the room. It was so cold that she could see her own breath and she wrapped her bare arms around herself as she shivered again. Miss Chilton swung her legs over the edge of the bed and took a good look around the room, taking in the details she was too busy to notice before.

For one, her clothes were no longer on the floor, but were now nicely folded on a chair beside the door, her shoes were placed just under the chair. The room was the same size as her own, if not a tad bit larger. Every inch of the walls was covered in Will's notes and sketches and paintings, in shades of blue and red and the combined purple. His scratchy handwriting was inked in black on each page.  She was well and truly surrounded by the creatures, as hundreds of deer stared down at her, of various different types and species, some with eyes, some without. There was a roll top desk against the wall opposite the bed, stacked with books and papers, a picture in a frame, bottles of ink and fountain pens, the red and blue watercolors as well. There was an armoire between the door and the desk, old, dark and most likely filled with Will’s clothes. A dusty old ottoman sat under the window, where Will would sit and watch the deer from the second floor now that the snow prevented him from going outside. Miss Chilton stood up and walked over to the desk. She glanced down at the papers on the its surface, smiling as she looked at Will's work, grotesque and simply beautiful. Her eyes flicked over to the framed picture, she curiously picked it up. It was of Will, several years younger than he was now, about her own age, a scruff-less face and shorter hair. There was a young woman next to him, his arm locked around her, with dark hair and big beautiful eyes. They were both smiling, happy. Miss Chilton knitted her eyebrows together, a ping of jealousy in her chest. She set the photo back down and turned around to get dressed. She threw on her slip and dress, rolling the rest up into a ball that she tucked underneath her arm. She picked up her shoes and crept out of the room.

The hallway was empty, to which Miss Chilton was very grateful. She snuck into her own bedroom, it was just as freezing cold as the rest of the house. She collected a new dress from her trunk, dark pink and long-sleeved, made of a heavy material that would keep her warm. She walked across the hall and into the washroom, her eye glanced over at the locked room as she passed it. Miss Chilton washed up and quickly got dressed, thankful to finally be in some warmer clothes. She walked downstairs, each step echoed as she made it. When she hit the first floor, a hunger pain rumbled through her stomach. It was then when she realized that she and Will had missed dinner last night. She put a hand over her stomach as it rumbled again. She turned right, towards the kitchen, and nearly bumped into someone as she did so. It was the doctor, coming from his office behind the stairs.

"Well, good morning, Miss Chilton." he said, with that signature thin smile. 

"G-good morning, doctor." she stuttered out, a hand held over her rapidly beating heart.

"I'm very sorry to have missed you at dinner. I hope you are not getting sick of my cooking." The smile widened. Miss Chilton politely shook her head.

"Oh no, doctor. I just...wasn't feeling too well, after the session, I mean. I hope you understand." she explained, conveniently leaving out the bits involving Mr. Graham and their erotic escapades.

"That is too bad." he said, an oddly friendly tone gracing his voice. "You must be starved. I can make you something to eat if you would like." Another sound rumbled through her stomach then, causing the doctor's smile to stretch even wider.

"I would like that very much, thank you." she agreed. The doctor offered her his arm, which Miss Chilton took hesitantly. She only liked it when Will would offer his arm and walk her around the house. She wasn't very keen on being led around by Doctor Lecter. He took her down the short hallway and sat her down at her usual spot at the table in the dining room.

"Please, wait right here, I will be right back." he said, before walking into the kitchen. She heard him rummaging through boxes and in cabinets as he prepared her meal. She turned her attention to the window behind her while she waited. The snow had finally stopped falling, but it was piled up so high against the window that it covered it up halfway, completely obscuring the bottom half in crystallized white. She didn't even want to imagine how high it stacked up against the front door. The thought sent a cold chill crawling up her spine. How in the world was Uncle Frederick going to be able to get through all this snow? There was no possible way a carriage could get through, especially on an old country road where people hardly ever visited. The roads this far out of the city would be the last to be cleared for certain, as the city roads and surrounding areas would be the first to be taken care of, the top priority, as they rightfully should be. But it still didn't calm her worry. The last outside person she saw with her own eyes was the man who had driven the carriage that brought here to Renard Hall. She remembered just how rocky and rough the road was when she arrived, and that was long before the storm hit. She tried not to imagine how treacherous it must be now that the ice and snow have covered everything over in layers and layers. She pouted with further worry. Although she barely knew the man, she loved her uncle dearly, and wanted him to arrive as safely, and as quickly, as possible. 

A rattle coming from the kitchen pulled Miss Chilton from her thoughts as the doctor emerged back into the dining room with a plate in each hand. The first was the saucer holding her cup of tea that he set down in front of her like a highly experienced waiter would. The second plate was placed next to the saucer, which held chopped up fruits; diced pears and apples, strawberries cut into little circles, all neatly arranged and layered into a little pyramid. Hannibal set a fork down next to the plate and gave a small bow as he presented her morning meal to her. Miss Chilton smiled in thanks as she picked up the fork and lightly stabbed at a strawberry.

"Is there anything else you would like?" the doctor asked. Miss Chilton politely shook her head as she popped the bright red fruit into her mouth. The doctor smiled down at her and returned to the kitchen. The moment he left, the smile left her face. He was acting rather peculiar, although when _wasn't_ the doctor acting peculiar? She continued to eat, taking the pyramid down a layer at a time, trying hard not to eat so fast even though she was so hungry. Eating too quickly always made her feel ill. She could hear the doctor getting dinner prepared, he would always take good care of the meat, she suddenly realized. The doctor would marinate the venison or beef early in the morning and begin cooking it in the afternoon. Once the clock struck the twelve o'clock hour, the smell of cooking meat would begin to radiate through the halls. It was strange to her, that Doctor Lecter chose to go into the medical practices rather than become a professional chef instead, he was the greatest cook she had ever met, in fact. Once she was on the final layer, a row of perfectly cut apples, she took a quick look over her shoulder at the frozen elements outside, the icy wind was howling through the leafless trees, rocking their branches into each other. Miss Chilton was not a religious woman by any means, but she whispered a silent prayer for her uncle's safe arrival.

After the last apple cube had been eaten, Miss Chilton sipped at her tea, the amber liquid still burning hot in the cup. She stepped away from the table, put her chair back in place and took her cup with her as she stepped closer to the kitchen. She leaned against the doorway without going in, not wanting to disturb Doctor Lecter's dinner preparations.

"Thank you very much, Doctor Lecter. That was delicious." she said, as she took a small sip of tea. She heard him chuckle from inside.

"You are quite welcome." was his reply, muffled a bit, as if he was straining with something. Miss Chilton turned and walked back into the hallway, holding her cup close to her to stay warm. She looked around the house, the beautiful wallpaper caught her eye, the dark red color that seemed to grace most of the house. She felt the smooth wood of the railing as she walked upstairs. She made a right at the landing and proceeded to enter the Winter Garden, but there was no Mr. Graham in sight. She frowned but took a step inside anyway. She walked around the chairs and dead plants and over to the large glass wall. She pressed her hand against the cold, wavy green glass and rubbed the frost and condensation away. She peered outside and down into the backyard. The window, _a fact which Miss Chilton learned only at this very moment,_ looked out over the Lecter family cemetery. Our heroine had always been so preoccupied by Will, that she never noticed what was on the other side of the glass. She chuckled to herself, feeling a bit stupid for having not looked out there sooner. The entire area, filled with tombstones, was fenced in with wrought iron and Miss Chilton gasped, her free hand subconsciously flew up to hold her midsection, a small jolt of psychosomatic pain shot through her lower stomach. She backed away from the window and hurriedly ran into the hallway. There was a sudden noise just ahead, the sound of a closing door. Miss Chilton looked up to see the doctor, he had just walked out of the locked room. He turned a key into the lock and then checked the knob to make sure it didn't open.

"Doctor." she said, startled. The doctor put the key around his neck with a small chain that was attached to it, he tucked it under his shirt and vest.

"Hello again, Miss." he said, the overly friendly demeanor returned. She approached him at the door.

"You know, doctor." she began, feeling a bit bold, trying to joke around with him. "I have been wondering this entire time what was behind that door." A strange smile crossed his face.

"It is only my bedroom, I assure you. I think you will find there is nothing of interest in there. Unless you are feeling a bit adventurous." he nearly purred. A blush tore across Miss Chilton's face, as her words had been weaved out of context.

"I-I didn't mean..." she stuttered out. "Oh, I am so sorry, doctor, I only meant..." He chuckled again.

"I am only joking with you, Miss Chilton." he laughed, as he passed by her. "No one is allowed in there, not even Mr. Graham. Would you like me to lead you back downstairs?" It was not a question. She took one last look at the door before turning back and following the doctor. He held his arm out to her as he led her back down the stairs. She looked down and noticed a small blotch of red on his stark white sleeve, near the cuff. "I must get back to preparing dinner, I'm afraid." He released her and said a quick goodbye before disappearing down the hallway. That was certainly strange. How did he get up there so fast? And how could he have gotten in and out so quickly? He was leaving by the time Miss Chilton caught him. She shook the thoughts from her mind as she took a drink of tea. She looked down the opposite hallway towards the sitting room and made her way towards it. Will wasn't in there either, his usual spot on the sofa was vacant. Miss Chilton sighed, disappointed. A light from the hallway leading to the fireplace room caught her eye. She was hesitant at first, the last time she visited that room, she had suffered a nerve attack. Bravely, and eager to see William, Miss Chilton headed towards the hallway. She peeked her head into the room and saw a familiar face on the sofa. Will was sitting to the right of the roaring fireplace, his work spread out on the table in front of him. She knocked gently on the door frame, smiling across to him once he looked up. He beamed back at her, before hesitating with shyness. He looked down, suddenly flustered, stuttering out her first name.

"I moved my work into here, it's much warmer. How-how are you?" he asked, nudging his glasses up his nose. Miss Chilton walked over to him and sat down beside him.

"I'm fine." she blushed, as she set the saucer-less cup onto the table. "Just cold." Will put his pen and notebook down before wrapping her up in his arms. Miss Chilton cuddled close to him, unafraid of the fireplace as long as he was there. She was so happy to finally be with him again, after an entire morning of searching for him.

"I'm sorry I...left this morning." he mumbled into her hair. "I didn't want to embarrass you." Miss Chilton laughed against his shoulder.

"There's nothing embarrassing about it." she said, even though she was still blushing. "I think I would rather enjoy waking up next to you." It was Will's turn to blush. He pulled back and stared down into her eyes. He leaned back in as he kissed her, his heart swelling up with passion. Miss Chilton could feel his stubble scraping against her chin and cheeks. She always imagined that kissing a man with a beard would hurt, that it might burn her face. But she liked the way Will felt against her. She liked the way _every part_ of Will felt against her. Will smiled as he pulled back, the sunshine burned through his eyes, like little rays of joy. He abandoned his research for now, in favor of holding his darling girl for a little while longer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this would have been posted LAST night, but my laptop had a literal meltdown overheating spell as I was writing and I lost most of it before I could save it. :( But luckily I was able to make up for it and get it all fixed. I hope you enjoyed it!


	13. The Hellscape

The last things that Miss Chilton remembered before her eyes fluttered closed was Will's smiling face looking down at her as she cuddled in closer to his side, the warm fire near them, and the nervous thump of Will's heartbeat inside his chest. When she opened them again she was somewhere else entirely; in a room completely black, shut off from any light or warmth.

  
But she could _feel_ herself there, standing still on trembling legs as she turned her head from side to side in a struggled attempt to see something, anything around her that she could make out the form of in the darkness. Something was wrong, gravely wrong, and she could feel it deep inside her bones. The scene shifted then, as Miss Chilton felt herself being tilted backwards, until she was laying down, hovering in thin air. She blinked and suddenly there was light, just in front of her, dim, but enough to finally see.

  
The sight was beautiful.

Will was laying above her, just as he was that night, his own eyes closed tight as he moved against her, slowly thrusting, his strong arms enclosed around her body. The picture through her eyes was distorted, as if she were looking up at him through a grainy, vignetted camera lens, though he was not in black and white, but in full glorious color. She could feel his skin slide against hers, his warm, throbbing cock inside of her. This was _real_ , she simply could not have been asleep. Will pulled back slightly, opening his eyes wide. But the sea green was not there, instead, a bright shining light poured from the open sockets, blazing forth like pure sunlight, flickering like broken projectors. Miss Chilton stared up at him, lips parted, not breathing a single breath. His strong hands clasped tightly around her upper arms as the beams from his eyes continued to sputter. Then, in the center of his chest a crack formed, broke, and sent another beam of warm sun pouring onto her naked body, blinding her eyes with holy light. With a loud crack sounding out around them, the lights went out, leaving only the inside sockets of Will's eyes illuminated; dark clouds rolled around inside of them, tiny bursts of crackling lightning, shooting out like stars. The clouds rolled over a violent sea, churning its waves back and forth through Will's empty eyes. The lightning sparked, illuminating the black waves as the water spilled down his cheekbones in shaky cascades.

  
A shiver tore down Miss Chilton's spine as a sudden spark of fright hit her directly in her chest. She shuddered underneath Will as he continued to thrust inside of her, the storm raging above the angry sea. Her legs held tighter around his waist as his grip on her arms crushed down. She opened her mouth to protest, but no sound passed her lips. 

Then, the breath came. The icy cold breath against her ear that she had felt before, chilling her down to the core. Miss Chilton tried to turn towards it, to finally see the woman who had been tormenting her, but she could not manage to look away from the storm, hypnotized by the crackling light.

 

_"Oh, how I warned you."_ the woman said, her voice dead and cold. _"I told you that this was the Devil's house."_ Miss Chilton struggled her shoulders, trying to escape Will's grip, but he was far too strong, impossibly strong. _'Please.'_ she mouthed, looking up at him with pleading eyes, still unable to get the word out. Will simply stared down at her, eyes still raging, as the salty ocean water dripped down his chest and splashed coldly onto her scarred stomach. _"He's gonna catch you..."_ the woman said slowly, moving from Miss Chilton's right ear to nuzzle against her left. _"He's...gonna...get...you."_ She sang now in a little girl's voice, high pitched and unnatural, the polar opposite of her normal voice. _"Gonna get you, gonna get you, carve you up, like a pig..."_

  
Tears rolled down Miss Chilton's face, down toward her ears and began to pool there. This wasn't _her_ Will above her, pinning her down to nothing as they both floated in the air in blackness. It wasn't _her_ Will pounding his hips against her, a storm in his head. This was a monster, a demon, but she couldn't quite help but enjoy his movements through her tremendous fear.

  
Maybe she _was_ in the Devil's house.

  
Maybe he had already gotten her.

  
She felt the woman's hands on her back, ice cold and bare, the long nails scratching lightly against her. The flesh of her hands felt wrong; sticky, rotten.

  
Dead.

 

_"He'll eat you up..."_

  
The hands pushed her forward, sitting her up as she fell once again into complete darkness. Will disappeared, or at least the thing wearing his skin did. The storm was gone, and she felt nothing as she floated, weightless.

  
Until a new pair of hands clasped below her arms, holding gently around the bottoms of her shoulder blades. Stronger hands, rougher, bigger. A large figure stood in front of her now, replacing the demonic William. Miss Chilton swallowed hard as she looked up into the eyes of the doctor.

  
Though, the dark maroon shade of his eyes was gone, replaced by total whiteness, no color to be seen. A pure, blank expression. Miss Chilton shuddered as his hands slid down her naked back, fingertips rough and calloused from his work. Her eyes were unable to leave the pits of white as he pulled her body closer to him. Doctor Lecter traced down the curves of her waist, gentle and light. She felt a sudden need for him as the wetness dripped down her thighs, a need stronger than anything she had ever felt. Just his hands were not enough, she _desperately_ needed him inside of her. She began to silently whimper as she ached for him, squeezing her thighs together in desperation. The doctor's hands stopped at her hips and she reached up to his shoulders, digging her nails deep into his flesh, pleading for him to take her. The doctor simply smiled as she writhed before him, shaking under his grasp. She pressed herself against his bare chest, arching her back as her breasts swelled against him, bucking her hips though unable to make any contact. It was if he only existed as a torso, head and arms. There didn't seem to be a lower body.

  
"Please." Miss Chilton managed to finally break her silence, pleading to him in an much different way than when she had tried to say the word before, moaning it out desperately instead of shaking with fear. The doctor said nothing, he only smiled, mouth closed, eyes still white. "Doctor Lecter, please..." she cried, frustrated. "Please fuck me." The smile only grew wider on his face, wider and wider until it began to distort, stretching out from ear to ear.

  
Then he opened his mouth, jaw cracking, as it opened wide. His hands on her hips gripped down tight, instantly leaving dark bruises in her skin. His mouth opened wider until his jaw broke with a loud _snap_ , showing the full insides of his mouth. He had no teeth, only empty, bloodied sockets, the nerves beneath were exposed, tiny pools of blood contained within them. Miss Chilton let out an ear piercing scream, it echoed around them as if they were in a tiny room with no way out. The sockets began to shift as small tips of white poked through the holes. Long, pointed teeth began to sprout from the sockets, slowly inching their way out, the blood dripped down his cracked lips. Fear gripped her again, sending her arousal far away as she continued to scream. The voice of the woman laughed behind her, cackling out like an old witch as it met her screams, combining like a song of terror, a symphony from Hell.

  
The doctor's temples began to crack open in small caverns of red. Horns burst through, protruding through his skin as they sparked with fire, burning bright, the light illuminated the shiny white teeth below. Smoke billowed from the caverns in his forehead, sending a halo of grey haze around his head as the screams still tore through Miss Chilton's throat. She felt her throat tear as blood trickled down, her fists beating against his shoulders. She felt him lift her higher by her hips as he brought her closer to his wide mouth, tipping her headfirst into the pit of teeth. Just as he began to eat her whole, her eyes flashed open as a harrowing scream erupted from her lungs.

  
Miss Chilton, now finally awake, kept screaming, even when Will wrapped his arms around her, desperately trying to calm her down as she shook violently, slapping him away, sending a harsh slap across his face. He recoiled and let her go. She stood up, backing away from the fireplace, fear shooting through her nerves. Hysterical, she ran out of the room and tore into the hallway, tripping before she could reach the staircase in the entryway. She landed hard on the floor, pain shooting through her body, eyes squeezed shut as her wild screams filled the entire house.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was the entire reason I started writing this, and after over a year of writing I finally got to it. I hope you enjoyed, there is plenty more to come. :)


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